The City of Obsidian
by Battalion Ice
Summary: Luigi built an impressive and intimidating resume as the Kingdom's most dangerous warrior before he left the kingdom. Now, a year later, the chance for a massive payday is drawing him back to the Kingdom, but a young Koopa's story is drawing him somewhere deeper. Luigi must stabilize his relationship with his sibling in order to pull off his job and perhaps even save the Kingdom.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Nintendo/Super Mario Universe characters mentioned below. They are property of the aforementioned and their appropriate affiliates. Please support the official games and merchandise.

I'm-a-Luigi. Number One. And dare anyone to say otherwise. Most people who've heard of me would know me as the younger brother of Mario. But most people in the Mushroom Kingdom know me as a ghost of sorts. Make no mistake, I'm still alive but my presence can be-a-very . . . haunting. Only my wife would call me an angel. But to everyone else? . . . Hmhmhm. None would call me an angel, unless they meant the Angel of Death. I left that wretched Kingdom for the last time at the height of winter earlier this year. And I ain't going back. My wife Daisy and I moved out here for a reason. To be free from all that shit. I live in the deep suburb of the kingdom now. Hell, I'd move farther, but I don't think I have to worry about those pricks in the Mushroom Kingdom bothering me. Any goomba or toad comes through here I'll decapitate him and use its head as an ottoman while I watch the Mushroom Kingdom burn on my 60 inch TV. Life outside the Kingdom is good. I walked outside to take in the sun and stand at the edge of my yard like I've earned the right to do so. I saw the mail truck pulling away from my box. I took the mail out the box. Its addressed to me. Nothing ever gets addressed to me. I opened it. It's from my brother.

" _To My Dearest Brother Luigi_

 _April 2016_

 _I know you're upset and by no means am I saying you ain't got the right to be. But if you're gonna throw this tantrum at least come back home and throw it. You can take it out on the goombas, the koopas, I don't care. Hell, come back to the house and throw that shit on the floor. Long as you come back, I don't care. We're plumbers. We're used to cleaning up shit._

 _Yours Truly_

 _Your Big Brother."_

How gullible does he think I still am? My thoughts were interrupted when Professor E. Gadd waved to me from his yard next door.

"Good morning neighbor! Pleasant day isn't it?" I looked down at the letter in my hand and remained silent. It's nice to have him as a neighbor, but when Daisy's not around, it's kind of annoying. He's so fucking positive.

Months after I received that letter, I came home from work to a voice message. It was from Mario. I sighed as I began to listen:

 _"I know you got my letter three months ago Bro. Answer my calls. Write back. Do something. Don't just leave me to assume the worst. Things aren't getting any better here in the Kingdom. Call back when you get the chance."_

He thinks he can just apologize and like magic everything is better? That ain't how shits-a-gonna work this time. He needs to learn that sometimes, when you fuck up, you can't make it alright and you have to just deal with the circumstances you've set for yourself.

It's the fall now. I live in a neighborhood that's so good you can leave your door unlocked. But usually if I ever do that, I come home to find E. Gadd in my living room watching TV. He's entirely too friendly. I don't hit him or nothing. I just kindly tell him to leave. Hell, sometimes, I just sit down and watch TV with him. He don't hurt nobody, usually. Distracts me when I need it.

Daisy would be pissed if she got home and saw all the leaves I haven't raked yet. Of course I always buy myself some time by telling her the color scheme of the falling leaves reminds me of her. It's beautiful really. She'd probably also be pretty pissed if I told her about Mario trying to contact me. I came home to another voice mail this afternoon. His voice gets more annoying every time I hear it again.

 _"_ _Alright, now this is starting to get downright disrespectful._ _It's October now and_ _I'm you older brother. The least you owe me is an a_ _u_ _dience. It gets worse here every day. Now I know what you're thinking. I should be able to handle this like usual. But ya see my brotha, It was because we worked as a team that we always came out on top. You know how I get when things start to frustrate me. For my sake and yours, you'd better give me a call!"_

I wish that red-hatted mothafucka would. He can't intimidate me no more. I'm my own man. Got my own job. My own wife. My own life. And if there's one thing I know about my brotha, it's that there's no room for all those things in my life if I let him back in.

It's Christmas time. I had just finished the décor in my yard. Literally draping the golden lights on my white picket fence. I saw the mail truck driving away so I checked my box. Another one from Mario. E. Gadd came running up to me as I was opening it.

"Merry Christmas neighbor!" Actually, on this day, I could use his positivity.

"And-a-Merry Christmas to you too, Elvin. How's the house?"

"It's decorated top to bottom in Christmas colors. Red and Green far as the eye can see." Red and green. "Oop. Sorry Luigi. I meant like, for Christmas red and green not, ya know, you and your bro-"

"That's alright."

"Here ya go, by the way. Merry Christmas!" He handed me a gift. Wouldn't you know it was a green box with a red bow. I still felt bad. I hadn't gotten the old guy a thing. I thought on my feet.

"Thanks Prof. I got something for you too. Ya know that weird generator that keeps shorting out your lights when you plug it in?"

"Why that things gonna be the death of me!"

"Well let's get to the garage." He scampers off as I follow him. He throws the garage door up with more strength than I thought he had.

"Now where's the problem?" I asked him.

"Well the electro-currents from the house are never enough or never stable when they get to the chamber core here." He points to a gap in the construction of this huge machine that takes up most of the room. There lots of tubes leading up to a chamber built for one. The gap is at the intersection of the tubes. I place my hand in front of it. "What are you doing Luigi? That's dangerous!"

"It's fine. Watch this." I said as I spawned a thunder bolt from my hand. It felt fairly low voltage. I increased intensity until the machine lit up and turned on.

"Perfect. By gawd, you've done it. I didn't even know you could do that!"

"Yeah, not a lot of people do. So what's this machine do?"

"It does this!" He walked up to the chamber. The door slid open for him. He went in and it closed behind him. A chute within the chamber slid downward and he disappeared.

"Uh. Professor?" This guy is entirely too weird for me to spend my Christmas here. I left the garage, closed the door behind me. When I got back in my house I began to open the letter from Mario. It seemed different.

 _To My Most Stubborn Sibling_

 _December 2016_

 _Every time we were in dire situations, every life-threatening experience, who was there with you? I did everything to make sure you were still alive to even read these letters today. And now that I need you, you turn your back on me? What kind of brother are you? Why, if it wasn't for me you'd be nothing more than a charred corpse at the bottom of a lava pit. Or the tacky green-hatted remains strewn somewhere in the slums of the BeanBean Kingdom. You are a Mario Brother. You do not properly function apart from me! I suggest you come to your senses soon. Oh. And Merry Christmas. Brother._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Mario_

"What's that letter say, neighbor?" E. Gadd said from my lazy boy. I jumped back in surprise.

"What the hell, Elvin? How'd you get in my house?"

"Why, the Hello-Neighbor-Elevator of course!"

"Is that the machine I just helped you fix?"

"That's right! You're always so busy, sometimes you accidentally leave the door locked and I can't get in the house. Now, we can both easily get from house to house." I stared at him with a confused anger about me. "Who's the letter from?"

"This? It's, from, Mario." I said as I tossed it aside.

"Now hold on there, neighbor. How did you end up getting a letter on Christmas day?" I thought on this.

"I don't know. But knowing Mario he just found a way."

"Do you think we should be worried?"

"WE shouldn't even be having this conversation Gadd. Get outta my house!"

"Ok then. This'll give me a good chance to see how well the HNE works going back to my house."

"No, Gadd. Walk out the door and stop attaching your inventions to my house!" He walked toward the door with his head hanging. He stopped when he got to the threshold.

"Hey, Luigi. That letter didn't say anything bad did it? You know both of our lives could still be-"

"It's fine. Nothing important. Have a Merry Christmas Elvin." I felt bad for dismissing the guy on Christmas, but my wife's the only one I wanna deal with this holiday.

It's February now. I was lazing around in the living room one Sunday when an envelope slipped through the mail slot of my door. "It's Sunday."I quickly raced to my door and opened it to see who was delivering me mail today. No one around. I checked the envelope. Sure enough, it was addressed to me from my brother.

Luigi

February 2017

So close are we in age that even when I tried to serve as your role model, I too would make mistakes. But would you believe me if I told you I had found the end-all-be-all solution to every problem we ever had? I'm writing you now because, as of the last six months, a man of my . . . "reputation" is heavily monitored. By my enemies. By the Mushroom Kingdom officials. Even by some whom I am trusting within my circles now. This rules any phone calls out of the question. This letter makes it to you via the services of those who respect me. You see, my brotha, respect comes from admiration and fear. I am admired for the progress I am bringing the Mushroom Kingdom. And I am feared by the opponents of progress. I know my past few letters may have said otherwise. But as I continue to inform you, things are changing here in the Kingdom. I am only advising you to be safe. Stay away from the kingdom. I only hope this letter reaches you in time. Stay safe my Brotha. All is as it is.

Yours Truly

Mario

Ha! Does he really think reverse psychology is gonna work on me? What does he take me for? I tossed the letter in the air and torched it with a fireball. That's what his words are worth to me. I went back into the house. I had just missed a phone call. The machine beeped to record the message.

"Hello? Luigi. *sigh* It's Peach. Listen, I know you probably aren't taking any work right now since . . . a year ago. But please at least hear me out. It's barely safe to leave this message and I know how you feel about Kingdom officials coming to your door. I'm requesting, no I'm pleading that you make your way to my Castle. Not as the princess, but as your friend. Given the severity of the situation you will be paid more handsomely than you ever have been before. More than enough for you to retire. However, I am hoping the plight of the ones you love will be your primary motivation. I am fully aware that I am risking my life by contacting you and inviting you into the castle. Once you hear me out, you will see that my risk is well worth it. Upon arriving to the gates of the Mushroom Kingdom, you will be safely escorted to the Castle. I eagerly await your arrival. Until then, Luigi."

She must be super desperate. She's right, I don't want anything to do with the Kingdom. But I know, however much she's willing to pay, I can probably negotiate for even more. Enough to never worry about a bill again. Go even farther from the Kingdom. See the world and relax. Now how would I justify this trip to Daisy? Actually, I guess that is the lifestyle I had in mind for us. I can do it. I'd better go alone though. With the stakes this high, I don't wanna risk anyone else getting hurt. I went to see E. Gadd next door. He let me in kindly.

"Elvin, Peach called me with a job today. I need to get to the Mushroom Kingdom, fast. I need ya to fly me there in your chopper." I told him.

"The Kingdom? But you said you weren't going back there."

"I know what I said, Elvin. I don't need a recap, I just need a ride. You can just drop me off when we start closing in on the walls."

"Shouldn't I come with you, neighbor?"

"Elvin, we moved here for different reasons. Daisy and I were _done_ with the Mushroom Kingdom. You were _afraid_. Don't worry, I won't take you through that trouble."

"But what about Daisy?"

"She's not going for the same reason you're not going. The Mushroom Kingdom is dangerous. They only care about themselves. Now come on, let's get moving. I wanna get this over with."

"Well alright, to the garage." It only took ten minutes or so to get within reasonable range of the Kingdom Walls by chopper. It's night time. "Now I took the liberty of preparing you for life inside the Kingdom Walls." He yelled over the hum of the chopper. "We're not sure if things have gotten worse or better in there and I want you to make it out of there alive." He tossed me my hammer.

"How did you get my hammer?" I yelled the question over the hum.

"Hello-Neighbor-Elevator! And here." He gave me a walkie talkie. "If the Kingdom is anything like I remember, it's not a good idea to wander around with a whole backpack of sorts. But between those two, you should be fine. Oh, and here!" He gave me a big heavy jacket. "It's the coldest in the walls this time of year. I'm afraid I'll get blown out of the sky if I go much further so this is where we part ways. Good luck Luigi."

"Won't need it neighbor." He swooped low and dropped me from the cabin. The chopper sped away into the distance. I put my hood on and walked toward the Kingdom. The size of the wall is menacing, stretching farther than the eye can see. It has been ever since the merger with Bowser's Kingdom. And we all see how that turned out. It's cold out and dark. As I begin closing in on the doors to the kingdom a group of hoodlums jumps from the bushes. Little toads, all dressed in tattered versions of their usual get-ups.

"G-g-give us your money and you won't g-g-get hurt." One of them said. Not sure if he was stuttering or shivering.

"Kid." I said. "I'm gonna count to two." I removed my hood just enough to reveal the L on my hat.

"Holy shit, everyone, get the hell out of here!" They scattered. It's upsetting. I like being feared throughout the Kingdom, but on the off-chance that it's a nice day here, I'd like, just for once, for someone to say 'Nice day in the Kingdom, Luigi!' I re-hooded and continued to the Kingdom doors. There were two Mushroom Kingdom Guards waiting.

"Give your identity and state you business or you will be detained." They sounded confident. I un-hooded and answered.

"I'm here to see the pretty lady in the pink dress."

"Luigi." They were taken aback. "We-we've been expecting you." The one on the left pounded twice on the doors. They slowly opened. A limousine was parked in front of the entrance. "Get in." Said a voice from inside. I got in. My window was rolled down without my permission.

"Why's my window down?"

"Calm down Luigi." A voice said on the opposite side of the cabin. The moonlight casting in through the window revealed his face in a dim light. "It's been a while."

"Not long enough, Toadsworth." I meant that. "Why is the Kingdom still merged with Bowser's?"

"Well you could hardly expect the royal family to give up so much land over a simple . . . disagreement."

"Disagreement? Do you want to die?"

"You can't intimidate me Luigi. I'm too old. I've seen too much."

"That wasn't intimidation. Just watch what you say."

"Fair enough. Your window was let down because it's not safe for the royal limo to travel in the open. But if people know you're in here, they wouldn't dare try anything."

"So what am I here for?"

"Well that scuffle you and your brother had with Bowser a year ago isn't quite wrapped up. The princess needs you to wrap up some loose ends her army can't quite reach."

"What loose ends?"

"You'll see." He answered. We arrived at the castle. Toadsworth and I got out of the limo. With the street lights outside the castle, I saw his face more clearly. The right side of his face appears to have recovered from a bad burn. Scars, burn marks and a right eye that looked to be blind.

"What the hell happened to your face, Toadsworth?" I said.

"All will become clear shortly. You've missed a lot in your absence Luigi." There was heavy security all round as we made our way through the castle. It's not for my safety. It's for the princess'. Toadsworth knocked on her door. She opened and greeted us.

"Good evening Toadsworth, Luigi. Guards leave us. Toadsworth will be here if we need anything." She forced a smile on her face as she spoke. It was all she could do to mask her fear.

"We will wait outside the door for you." One guard said.

"Not necessary." She clarified. "You have an entire castle to patrol."

"But your highness, L-" He stopped short of his sentence and looked at me. "W-what about your safety?"

"If I could clarify." I spoke up and dropped my hood completely. "You are all dead the moment I want you to be. That much being said, you guards can do what you want and it wouldn't affect the outcome of this meeting we're about to have." The room fell silent for a moment. Toadsworth broke it.

"We will be fine, sergeant. It is a symbol of the princess' trust in Luigi for you to patrol elsewhere. You may go."

"Yes sir." The guards left us and Toadsworth closed the door behind us.

"It's been a while Luigi." Peach said. "We haven't talked since your heroics a year ago."

"Is that what you call it?" I responded.

"There really is no pleasing you. I tried to tell you even before you left how sorry I was."

"Is that supposed to make it alright?" I took a seat next to her dresser.

"You're supposed to understand. You went through everything with us. You know how fast everything happened."

"I'm used to things happening fast and making quick decisions. So is my brother. You were the only one who fucked up in the moment. At least when Mario does things, he does them on purpose. He doesn't just fuck up."

"Well I'm sorry, damn it! I didn't mean for things to happen the way they did. None of us were supposed to get hurt! It wasn't supposed to come to Daisy's, ya know. . ." She trailed off and stopped.

"Is the princess too good to use the word murder, Peach?" I asked.


	2. Chapter 2: Enter the Compound

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Nintendo/Super Mario Universe characters mentioned below. They are property of the aforementioned and their appropriate affiliates. Please support the official games and merchandise.

"You shouldn't toss around such words so carelessly!" The princess snapped at me. "Not if you want me to employ you."

"Please!" I teased. "You got no choice. You wouldn't have gone through the trouble to get me otherwise. Which means whatever you need, you need it bad. Now what's this job that's apparently worth the price of my retirement?"

"Very well. Do you remember your last encounter with your brother?"

"Do I ever."

 **Flashback, February 2016: In his castle, Bowser makes a last stand against the Mario Brothers as they drive him out of his latest invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom, his son on his side, holding off Luigi.**

"It's over Bowser. You army is on its heels. We've reclaimed everything. Give up now and your punishment shall be solitary confinement instead of being housed with the regular Mushroom Kingdom criminals. And trust, me, you want no part of that."

"Fuck you, Mario! If your punishments meant anything to me, we wouldn't be where we are today. I'll take the Princess _and_ the Mushroom Kingdom no matter what. Or I'll fucking die trying. And you? You ain't got the balls to kill me, Mario."

 _SKEEEEEEEEEEEECH!_

"What was that?" Mario asked before the scorched body of Bowser Jr crashed down in front of Bowser. I walked up behind my brother and rested my arm on his shoulder.

"See that, Koopa King?" I said. "That's what happens to anyone who fucks with me from now on."

"Is he-" I interrupted Bowser before he could finish his question.

"Dead." I said. "He's very very dead."

"How did you?" Mario asked me. I turned my head to tell him. "I just got so tired of . . . everything. And when I just thought about how sick and tired I was, of everything, I jumped, and I uppercutted him. And he lit up like the lava pits below. Just fucking torched him." I turned to project my voice toward Bowser. "And it felt good! You see that? That's you if you don't surrender now!" Bowser didn't look up from his son before answering, calmly.

"I concede. Take your brother, your princess, and your army, and leave my castle." He picked up his charred child, and turned his back to walk away from us.

"That's right!" I shouted at him as he walked away. "Everyone here gets to feel loss. I lost my wife! You lost your son!" I turned to Mario and removed my arm from his shoulder. "And you're losing a brother." I walked away from Mario for the last time.

 **End of Flashback: back to the Princess' chambers.**

"What of either of those two?" I asked.

"You murdered the Koopa King's son, Luigi." Toadsworth said.

"Yeah. And then when the Kingdom started to fall apart and anarchy was on the rise, I was the number one hitman. And during that time I murdered way more people. So what's your point?"

"Is that what Daisy would have wanted you to do? Murder in the name of money instead of in the name of the Mushroom Kingdom. Or anything just, that is."

"We'll never know, Toadsworth. My wife was killed."

"Stop saying that!" Peach piped up.

"She was killed, Peach!" I slammed my fist on the dresser and stood up. "She was fucking killed! YOU _MURDERED_ HER!" We heard banging at the door.

"Your highness!" The guards were banging on the door. "Is everything alright?"

"Everything is fine, soldier. Now carry on." Toadsworth said trying to control the situation. "And do not disturb us again." At Toadsworth's words, I calmed down and took my seat once again. The princess continued.

"You left Mario at the end of the encounter and he tried to reach out to you many times between then and now."

"I'm aware." I replied.

"Well, weren't you wondering what his escapades were turning into?"

"Not in particular. You have to lay low when you make a living off killing. I didn't really fuck wit my brotha anymore."

"Well after you left the Kingdom completely, he let only a short while pass before he eventually went after the Koopa King again. He was still in charge of the Mushroom Kingdom army at that point."

"And he's not anymore?"

"If we hadn't relieved him of his command, the troops, or what was left of them, would have turned on him anyway."

"So what happened?"

"Allow me, your highness." Toadsworth took over. "Before the last great war between the Mushroom Kingdom and the Koopa King's forces, both sides agreed to a truce and a merger. Bowser would get to use the land he so craved and the Mushroom Kingdom would be free of his constant terrorism."

"Yeah, you royals were idiots for that shit."

"Respect, Luigi." Toadsworth said to me.

"I can respect you as much as I want or don't want. Doesn't make you people any smarter. You sit up here in your castle and you make laws for a place you barely have to live in. Never have to see the real world of."

"That's quite enough, L-"

"Face it, there's about two places the Princess knows best, the inside of her chambers and the inside of Bowser's."

"That's _enough_ , Luigi." The princess piped up at me. "Onto the relevant matters Toadsworth."

"Very well, your highness. As you know, the Koopa King eventually turned on us. And since both territories had been accommodated into the same protective walls and a suitable trail of commerce and commute paved from here to his castle, it made it all the easier to wage war, no invasion. This war, of course, ended with you and your brother killing Bowser Jr. and yielding the Koopa King's surrender. But after you left, Mario used the resources of the Mushroom Kingdom Army to continue to bombard the Koopa King's castle. This further use of the Kingdom's resources in the War led to the wartime depression worsening, even more so than when you were last here."

"It got worse than having an easy market for hitmen like me?" I asked.

"Yes. Mario drove Bowser and most of his forces out of his own castle."

"Where did they go?"

"To date, no one knows. Not even Mario himself."

"Of course not."

"When news of the conquered castle reached the Mushroom King, his highness quickly stripped Mario of his command of the Mushroom Kingdom Army."

"So the guy conquers a castle for you, and ya kick him out?" I folded my arms in my chair.

"If only it had been that simple. As I said, Mario had only driven out most of the Koopa King's forces from his castle."

"What happened to the rest? Did he kill em?"

"Worse. They joined him and pledged their allegiance to him in what is being called the Red Army. Bowser's castle and the grounds surrounding it is their base of operations. They've intensified both the depression and the apocalyptic scale of anarchy in the streets. Everyone is either a member of the Red Army, an official of the Mushroom Kingdom, or another looter or criminal in the street. Theft, rape, murder, it's all a daily occurrence now. Worse so than when you left."

"So is he attacking or trying to take the castle?"

"What?"

"Mario. My brother. Is he attacking or terrorizing people in the streets? Because see, it sounds like he found some people that like him that don't stand for whatever it is you royals stand for and you don't like it. He gave a whole group of former bad guys a reason to follow him and you're afraid your once-loyal subjects will eventually follow suit. Tell me Toadsworth, am I in the ballpark?"

"Y-you, are wrong." He said to me nervously.

"Am I completely wrong?"

"They killed my father." The princess chimed in.

"What?" I asked for clarity.

"While my father and the royal guard were passing through on their way back to the castle, they were attacked and killed via bomb-ombing. Toadsworth and a couple of my guards were the only survivors. The guards will live, but can no longer serve and protect with their injuries. And as you can see, Toadsworth did not escape unscathed. But my father did not escape at all.

"And the Red Army killed him?"

"Who else in these walls would have access to bomb-ombs from the Koopa Kings arsenal?"

"I don't know, the Koopa King maybe?"

"The Koopa King's presence would have been detected by now were he still lurking within the Kingdom." Toadsworth interjected.

"He is correct." The princess cosigned. "As much as it pains me to realize it . . ." She turned her head to the side and clinched her gloved fist at her hip. "Mario and his thugs killed my father all because we stripped him of his military position." Tears ran down her face as she turned back to me. "My dad is dead! And the royal family will not take such an act of terrorism lying down!" She wiped her tears and walked toward a mirror on the opposite side of the room, her back pointing toward Toadsworth and I. "I'm next in line for the throne. My coronation ceremony is then scheduled for tomorrow." She looked me in the eye through the mirror.

"And you brought me in to make sure it goes smoothly, I'm guessing." I said.

"What?" She said. "No! He abused the Mushroom Kingdom's resources and killed my father. That's a declaration of war. My army will handle the war part. But Luigi, I want you to go to the base of the Red Army, and _kill_ Mario."

"You're a brave soul, Toadstool. Asking that a man kill his brother."

"I'm more rich than I am brave, Luigi. I'm _paying_ you to kill him."

"Was that supposed to make you sound like a better person?"

"What makes him any better than all the thugs you murdered in cold blood? Not the least of which was the son of the Koopa King. They were bad people whom you were paid to kill. The same is true now."

"Just like a royal. No sense of value for a life not in their family. You wanna know what started the massacre I went on in the weeks before I left?"

"Your insatiable blood lust?" Toadsworth said.

"No. That's just what kept me going. My first bona fide kill that wasn't done in self-defense or in the pursuit of peace for the Kingdom was Bowser Jr. Peach, when you killed my wife, I had trouble comprehending anything that was going on. It messed up my senses. There was a high-pitched squeal in my ear trying desperately to turn itself into her voice. A fiery sensation on everything I touched that I knew wasn't her. My vision was blurry, all I knew for the moments was that I was fighting alongside the vision of red and blue that was my brotha. My senses were like my world would be without her. Crashing down. Then, as I was fighting Bowser Jr., my vision suddenly cleared up, the burning sensation in my hands was embraced by my body, the high-pitched squeal ceased and I heard Bowser Jr.'s taunts loud and clear. And when I took in a deep breath, it all became clear. Death was the most efficient way. For everyone to learn. For Bowser to fall back. For the Mushroom Kingdom to let up. To control the population of the degenerates you once called your loyal subjects. I cleaned your streets of its troubled souls. Washed them away in their own blood! Let it run down in the gutters. Down to the sewers where only we, the Blue-Collar plumbers of society, can see it all for what its worth. Everyone was learning their lesson. And everyone that didn't learn, didn't live. I killed low-lives who had it coming. You're just upset that it turned out to be more of those in your precious Kingdom than you thought! But your actions made the killer you see before you now. You enraged me into my spree last year. You're as responsible for all those deaths as I am. Oh, but wait. I guess that's the thing about being the princess. Who's gonna hold you accountable for a murder in your own walls? No one!" I stood up and turned towards the door. I put my hood back over my shoulders. "I tell you what, I'm still itching for that payday. So I'll go and get Mario. I'll bring him back to you. And when a I get back, you'd better have a reason why he deserves to die more than you, Peach."

"And if she does not?" Toadsworth butted in. I turned back to him and smiled as I headed for the door.

"Hmmm. Who knows? For now, let's just hope it doesn't have to come to that."

"Wait, allow the guards to escort you out." Toadsworth advised.

"The royal guard?" I asked, sarcastically.

"You expect me to believe that the limo driver is gonna take me all the way to Bowser's compound?"

"No. But he'll get you far enough fast enough."

"Do we have a deal, Luigi?" The princess asked for clarification, stepping towards me. "You will apprehend Mario. I will pay ten times your usual fee."

"Make it 20. He's my brother and the leader of the Red Army."

"Agreed."

"I'll take the guard and the limo out." I said, leaving.

"Good choice." Toadsworth said. The guards picked me up when I got to the bottom of the stairwell. We got outside to the driveway and I got inside the limo.

"I will take you where you need to lodge." The toad driver said. "I'm not driving into the compound of the Red Army."

"Then you will pull over to the side of the road, get out of the car and let me in the driver's seat."

"What? Absolutely not, I do that, I'm as good as fired."

"I'll sock you in the eye and you can tell em I stole it. Or you can refuse and die. This is my last time asking you. Would you rather be jobless or dead?" He was silent for a moment. Then he started to slow down.

"Fuck you, Luigi!" He opened the door and dove out of the car.

"Fucker!" I shouted as I started climbing through the window. "I'm gonna run you over just to prove a point!" I dove into the driver seat and hit the brake hard as I could. The car skidded. I drifted it back around and brought it to a halt. I saw the driver run into an alley. "If the royal guard comes for me or the limo, I'll kill you!" I shouted out the window. Even if he tells, the Mushroom guard won't follow me into Red Army territory. They only recently started being afraid of me, but they've been afraid of Mario for years. I saw a cassette recorder on the dashboard. I picked it up out of curiosity and pressed play. It was a recording of the driver's log I guess.

"They're calling these the end of days here in the Mushroom Kingdom. Everyone who's no one doesn't wanna be forgotten. So everyone's doing these . . . audio logs. Like they can make themselves live forever if they can just leave their voices to be heard. Even if it's long after the war. I . . .I guess I'm no different. Driving around the royal limo. I might as well put a giant target on the hood. Only people left here that still like the royal family is, the royal family. And their almost extinct. If you're hearing this, and the conflict has already ended, congratulations. You're either young, or a survivor." The end of days, huh? Well I won't be here long enough to see that. Gonna get Mario, drag him back to the castle, and be done. I slowly turned the limo around and headed for Bowser's compound. To the Red Army. Hm. The Red Army. Mario's simple. But effective. I drove for about fifteen minutes. I saw all the looted shops, banks robbed, the occasional corpse and the more than occasional hooker. I stopped at a four way stop to turn. A random lakitu floats over my car and begins washing the windshield. Poor guy was probably a promising young member of the fair and balanced media of the Mushroom Kingdom. I waved my hand at him and then wiped my finger across my neck. That means he needs to stop or I'll kill him. While my car is at a complete stop, a group of red koopas ran and jumped in front and on either side of me with baseball bats. They rolled up a giant bullet bill cannon in behind them and in front of my hood.

"Open the door, you castle bottom-feeder!" One of them said, standing by the driver door. I rolled the window down and scowled at him. "Holy shit, it's Luigi! Everyone fall back!"

"What do you mean fall back? We've got him." Another said.

"You ain't heard bout all the bodies he done bodied?" Another voice said.

"We have a giant cannon!" They continued to argue. "What could he possibly do?"

"That's what squad 4 said bro!"

"Who the fuck is squad 4?"

"He killed them before you enlisted. Didn't you wonder why the squads skipped 4 and went to 5?"

"We skip lots of other numbers."

"That's because he killed them all!"

"That is a fucking lie. Who keeps telling you newbies this."

"Guys!" I shouted. They all jumped back slightly. "This can easily be settled. Just fire the damn cannon.

"Sounds safe enough." They fired. I super jump uppercutted through the windshield clear out of the way and landed on top of the bullet. It dropped to the ground instantly.

"I never understood the reason for that?" I teased. "Now you gonna stand here and die or would rather die running away?"

"Everyone, fall back! Run. And get the cannon. Mario will kill us if a giant cannon goes missing!" They frantically rolled the cannon away while I just stood in front of the car.

"You guys are lucky I have somewhere to be or I'd kill you!" Damn it. They must have been part of Mario's "Red Army". Fuck, now he's gonna know I'm coming. Guess that's what I get for closing in on the compound in the royal limo. I can see the entrance to the compound in the distance. The fence still bears Bowser's face, but with a red M painted across. I got in the car and focused as much as I could through the hole in the windshield. I stepped on the gas. After about 45 seconds, the automatic gate begins to open. As I get closer, I hear a voice echoing outside.

"Oh. Now you want to come. Now you'd like to get closer to your brother. Well I regret to inform you that when _I_ ask something of you, you have a narrow window to accept the invitation!" The gate begins closing. "This is your last warning. Turn around, brother!" I sped up, just to piss him off. The grill hit the gate as it was closing. With no seatbelt, I went flying through the windshield. I put my hands at my sides and embraced the flight. A group of bullet bills is flying toward me. I adjust myself in the air and turned sideways, allowing them to pass me. Explosions erupt behind me. I landed on the roof of what looked to be the watch tower.

"I don't see him!" I hear a voice say below. It must have been the guard's watch tower. Suddenly, I feel a buzzing in my pocket.

"Hello? Hello? Neighbor? How's everything going? Are you still alive? Say something."

"Damn it, Elvin!" Bullet holes start lining the roof of the tower. I scamper down and hop inside with its red koopa sniper. I kick the rifle upwards. It lets off another shot. I smash him over the head with the barrel and take it from him. I get behind him and choke him with it. "Do you wanna die quick or in the name of the Mushroom Kingdom?" My question confused him, as it should have. But he still managed to answer.

"For a bunch of self-righteous mushroom retainers trying to impose themselves on the free? Fuck your Kingdom!" He shouted.

"My Kingdom?" I asked before snapping his neck. "It's my _world_!" He fell to the floor. "And you just lost your right to live in it." Just then, I heard Mario's voice on the megaphones throughout the compound.

"Soldiers of the Red Army, by now we are all aware of the familiar . . . presence, in our midst. Yes, my baby brother. Mushroom Kingdom's famous murderer of men. Notice I say, _Mushroom Kingdom's._ None of his acts took place here at the home of the Red Army. And rightfully so. The troubles lie outside of our abode, our refuge. He has not, and cannot defeat us here! Remember who his older brother is. Would you rather risk death from him, or face certain annihilation from me?" As confident as ever. But even with that confidence, how does he brainwash a bunch of Bowser's old minions? I saw an audio log on the floor of the tower. I picked it up and played it. It was the sniper's.

"The end of days? Ha. That's what it's called if you let those Mushroom Kingdom pricks tell it. But for us, this here's a new beginning. I've got one of the last guns in the kingdom. Just a sniper ready to defend the Red Mission until the end. Finally, a leader that fucking learns from his mistakes. Morale's higher than it's been in years. And still, it ain't quite the same without Green. Green, you bastard. Why didn't you just see the light? It sucks here in the good life without you buddy. But I understand. You are loyal to what you are loyal to. I just hope that when we cross path's again, we're still friends. Red out."

Concluded.


	3. Chapter 3: Red and Green

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Nintendo/Super Mario Universe characters mentioned below. They are property of the aforementioned and their appropriate affiliates. Please support the official games and merchandise.

So these Red Army guys are really gung ho with whatever Mario put in their heads. I'll enjoy taking him down. Unmaking whatever he told them was true. I peeked down from the sniper's tower. The entrance to Bowser's castle, now Mario's I guess, is not far. But they know I'm up here. I have to find a safe route down. I heard Mario's voice echoing about the compound again.

"Luigi, if you were anyone but my brother, you would be dead by now. I'm not sure if that's a statement of my mercy, or a compliment to our wonderful gene pool. Turn back now, brother. If you can but make it to the soil outside the compound, then the Red Army will not pursue you. Consider _that_ my grace. And consider _this_ your incentive." I turned around to see a giant bullet bill traveling rather fast for a giant one. It hit the tower hard. The tower leaned slightly toward Bowser's castle. I was in suspense that it might fall. The suspense ended when another shell hit the tower. Blew the top half from the base and sent it hurdling toward the reinforced door. I braced for impact.

"Front door units!" Koopas were shouting. "Get the hell out of there!"

 _BOOOOOOOSHHHHH_

"Is everyone alright?"

"We're fine. Find Luigi's body. We're not leaving until we confirm a death!" They were rushing over to the crash site. Most of them wielded their own type of bludgeon. "Search the rubble. _Find_ him!" There is a shallow ditch filled with water around the castle within the compound, entrance included. The crash had destroyed most of the bridge over it. The Koopas were treading through water searching for me. It starts to rain.

"We're not gonna have to clean this up later, are we sir?"

"There's floating pieces of bridge and tower everywhere. What do you think.?

"Uh, sir."

"What?" The lead Koopa said, turning to see me holding his subordinate by the neck with his own crowbar.

"Found that body."

"Nobody do anything stupid!" I said. "Otherwise, he's as good as dead."

"Tread lightly Luigi. We won't spare you simply because you're Mario's little-"

"Choose your next words carefully, koopa. They could very easily be your last." At that moment, I felt a soldier hop out of the water behind me. I released my hostage and dove away. The attacker just barely missed me. I was on the ground, hands and rear planted in the shallow water when he and the rest approached me with confidence.

"It's over, Luigi."

"Yeah." I said as I lit up the waters with electricity. All of their red shells began to darken to a purple-ish hue. They dropped like flies when I ceased. "For you." The entrance door has been knocked down from the crash. I quickly ran inside, not knowing when or from where more would come. It was very dark in the foyer. No accident I'm sure. There are several red torches along the wall. I grabbed one and continued on. Ahead on my right, I saw an inconspicuous hallway. I thought it better to take that path instead of walking in a straight line. I turned into it and continued. I stepped on something in the dark. I picked it up. Another audio log. I pressed play.

"The nime's Green. Fust lieutenant, Koopa Army, and King Koopa's most trusted and valued soldier. I personally don't see the need in these recordings. But the Koopa Kings says a soldier like meself ought to be remembered and heard long after I can serve no more. Flattering. Morale's been low among the ranks lately. I don't see what the big problem is. We're literally closer to conquering the Mushroom Kingdom than eva before. We need only an opportunity to deal the fa-ul blow. Me best friend Red's moving to sniper duty. He's a skilled moksmen, but I doubt he's the one should be trusted with one of the last guns in the Kingdom. Guy's startin to sound like some of the rest of these crazy folks around here with his complaints about the wuking conditions." So that was Green. Between this guy and the dead sniper, maybe I could find out more than the royals were willing to tell me. Or even knew. I heard Mario's voice on the intercom again.

"You, brother, of all people should know that there are certain decisions from which you cannot backtrack." BOOOOM! There was a loud thud behind me. I turned around to see a wall instead of the pathway back. "But then you, my brother, would not know what it means to be my enemy! Not your fault. Well, since you're here, you may as well learn a little. Retire your torch." The lights came on and the sprinkler head above me extinguished my torch. There were several classroom desks in front of me. They were all facing a giant TV screen. The TV turned on by itself. It showed a picture of Mario's hat and I could hear his voice narrating. "Hello, trainees. Welcome, to Red Army 101. I am Mario, of the Mushroom Kingdom. You may know me as one half of the Kingdom's most lucrative plumbing business. Some of you may know me from my adventures with my baby brotha. Most of you probably know me as the murderer of many of your former co-workers and close friends. Ah, yes. Feel that instant spark of rage? What if I told you that the source of that rage was not me, but your former employer, the Koopa King?" It showed an unflattering picture of Bowser. "You see, I killed them to defend my loved ones. Your loved ones died to obey orders. But it was never about killing for me. It was about obtaining the greater good. Peace in the Kingdom and the areas around. But alas, my brother and I were only two people. What could we do besides serve as glorified mercenaries for the crown? It did damage to both me and my sibling." A slide popped up showing my brother and I, side by side. "But my brother took more psychological damage from it than me. You see, working for the crown would eventually cost him his dear wife." It cut to a picture of Daisy. I would have been furious if she weren't so beautiful, even on screen. "As well as his sanity." It cut from Daisy to a picture of me standing amid scores of dead Toads. How does he even make pictures like these? Dead citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. Most of them were on fire. They seemed to be all dressed up. I held one victim up off the ground by the face, shocking her with thunder. She was wearing a wedding dress. Behind me lay the groom, his white tuxedo turned red and my hammer lodged into his face. Suddenly, the movie paused and I heard Mario's voice over the intercom again. "Welcome to the training classroom of The Red Army, brotha. Now, before we move along with the video, I want you to pay attention and answer some questions for me. The questions will be rhetorical, seeing as you can hear me, but as of now, I cannot hear you. See this video still? Do you know how many corpses there are around you?" I didn't. "It's much more than you can see in the picture, I assure you. Let me ask as well, do you know the names of the bride and groom?" Is this even real? "Now this question is more of a request. Look into your eyes. Do you see the unrivaled rage, how there appears to be no thought process at all? Now, look at your lips. Is that? Huh. A smile? My brotha, this is no sketched and crudely drawn picture. This is an original photograph. This is _real._ Observe the looks of horror on the faces that you can see, the faces that aren't burned, bludgeoned, or shocked into paralysis. Observe how the blood flows downhill. Observe how it mixes with the sweat of your brow. And now that we know this photograph is real, I have one more question. Do you even remember that day?" I couldn't take anymore. I launched a fireball at the TV and set it ablaze. "That is my property, Luigi. Don't fuckin do that!" The wall behind me that had closed earlier lifted up and scores of Koopas came rushing in. I turned to them and threw a barrage of thunder and fire. They burned and flew everywhere. They started getting closer. Too close. I pulled out my hammer and unleashed my tornado spin. I smashed and knocked several of them out. There were three left when I stopped to get my bearings. One of them hit me in the side from behind with a bat. I absorbed the hit and kicked the handle up into his chin, rattling his brain about until he fell. As I kicked the bat, I was grazed by a shank tipped lead pipe. He swung again. I rolled behind him and grabbed and threw him against the burning TV. When I turned to see the last one, I was hit in the face with his shell. I stumbled back a bit as he landed.

"For the Red Army!" He shouted as he went back in his shell and charged toward me. I quickly pulled out my hammer and smashed his shell to bits. His blood body spread from beneath it. Broken and pierced everywhere. I feel a rumbling in my pocket. Then I hear a familiar and annoying voice.

"Neighbor? Neighbor? Is the coast clear?" I pull the walkie-talkie from my pocket.

"Its fine now, Elvin. What's up?" I answered him. As he begins talking, I see a passage way in the corner behind the burning TV. I follow it.

"What's been going on. I've been trying to reach you like crazy!"

"Shit's getting real fucked up real fast, Elvin."

"What do you mean?"

"So the whole job the princess needs me for is basically to kill Mario."

"Your brother? Well why on Earth?"

"Vengeance, looks like. You were right, things have gotten worse in this hell hole. Everyone either works for the Mushroom Kingdom, lives in anarchy for themselves, or works for the Red Army."

"Who and what is the Red Army?"

"Well, ya know how my brother's a manipulative tyrant?"

"Good Lord. Mario commands an entire army separate from the Mushroom Kingdom forces?"

"Not just separate, against. They set up shop in Bowser's old castle. My job is to come in here, get Mario, and leave. All while keeping the Mushroom Kingdom's hands clean, I guess."

"In _here_? Luigi, you're not actually inside Bowser's old castle, are you?"

"Well that's where my damn brotha is, Elvin!"

"Maybe, I should come and help."

"Don't, you'll just end up getting into trouble. There's only one of me, I can't guarantee your safety as long as I'm pulling off this job."

"But if I remember correctly, you wouldn't have pulled off many jobs were it not for me."

". . ."

"Neighbor?"

"Elvin, how would you even get in here without getting robbed by commoners or jailed by the Kingdom officials?"

"I made a secret pathway in and out of the Kingdom before we left. It's just behind the castle. No one will find me and I can lend you support when needed."

"It's your call, Gadd. But I'm not responsible for your safety."

"Understood. How are you proceeding?"

"I'm trying to find Mario. I'll keep you posted. Over and out." As I said that, I came upon what looked to be a video shelf in a recession of the dim-lit hall. There's an audio log on it. I take a listen. It's Mario's voice.

"I had never understood it, in all our years of fighting Bowser's forces, but now it makes sense. Consider this. The green Koopa walks aimlessly in the initial direction of it's target. Blindly obeying orders until the bitter end. ' _Charge'_ King Koopa might say. ' _Charge at the Mario Brothers_ '. And with complete disregard for his own safety and any common sense, he charges toward us, knowing good and well what we are capable of. The scores of minions whose lives we've ended. Most often, it ends with just another koopa to kill. And on occasion, though still too often, the green koopa troopa falls to his own death. He doesn't sense the danger of the bottomless pit before him, he just _walks over the ledge._ But the red koopa. He understands caution and the value of thinking for oneself. He can listen to his own reason. He knows how to survive and it will take more than a pitfall to best him. That is why, save for a few, The Red Army of Bowser's old minions- _my army_ -is filled with only red koopas. You'll find no mindless green koopas in sight. They were all either too stupid and cowardly to break free from Bowser's mental hold on them, or . . . they're dead." Well that's a good bit of insight. So that's why they're all red-shelled koopas. I continued down the hall. The end of it opens up to a well-lit laboratory. It looks dated and dusted. I'm guessing Bowser had a use for this room, but Mario doesn't. As I'm snooping around, I hear Mario's voice over the intercom.

"You certainly are the snooping kind aren't you? Why is that? What use do you have for this lab? Are you not here for me." The intercom went off. Then it came back on. "You re here for me, aren't you? The princess probably said something like, 'Oh, he's a murderer, a tyrant. He's no good for the Kingdom.' Brotha, you can be naive. But you ain't that damn stupid. Realize that the second I want you dead, that's just what you are, DEAD! *sigh* If she's blaming me for her father's 'accident' I can garauntee you that wasn't me. What business do I have with the late King? None. Because he is dead. But it wasn't me. Ya know what I bet the crown would pay more for? Knowledge of who did. And guess who's got the real scoop?" He's gotten more sickening since I left.

"You sick fuck! You mess with my payday, I _will_ kill you!"

"Maybe you didn't gather it in your time back, brotha. But the Kingdom, for all intents and purposes, is mine. Whatever, I want, I get. Now I've just gotta make things to get." The intercom went off. The wall next to me slid up to reveal a grounded thwomp. He had the same stupid look on his face as the rest of them. But in a place like this, he's harmless. Unless of course-

SSSSSSHHHHHH "RRRRRRMMMMMM!" He starts moving horizontally. Fuck! A sliding thwomp! I'd only seen one once before when I was with my brother. We assumed it to be an accident of nature. Maybe it was. Maybe this is the same one. He starts sliding toward me super fast. I jumped clear. He crashed into the lab counter. "UUUUURRRRRRR" He starts sliding at me again. The ceiling's pretty low and I can't jump that high here. I rolled clear of his assault. He hits another counter. A bunch of audio logs fly everywhere. Two of them land near me. The thwomp seems stuck in the wall for a moment. I listen to the tapes to see if they can help me before he breaks free. I play the first one.

"Green's log: stotin ta think that Red and those other crimson culored cunts, thinks I'm stupid. I'm the top scientist and the most trusted soldier in King Koopa's army. They think those things just happen. Like I'm some lucky green turtle, waltzes around with beakers and goggles. Ah, damn it Red. Always going against the grain for no good reason. Meanwhile, I'm short-staffed here in the lab because people are in their feelings. *sigh* They'll see when the whole thing comes together." The Thwomp breaks free and starts heading my way again. I roll atop him and let him continue on his way. I landed near most of the audio logs. I picked up as many as I could while playing one. Same voice.

"Green's log: I've just successfully replicated the greatest accident I ever had. The lateral thwomp. Does everything the first one did. Except think, honestly. Thing put a hurtin on the lab. Luckily, it is a _Lateral_ thwomp. Had to get the hell out of there and sneak back up on it and trap it with the whole crew while it was sleepin. At least now I know it can't be stopped. Only contained." I looked for the nearest exit and bolted for it. I fell down the stairs on the way out. I noticed that the thwomp wasn't following me. That's when it hit me. _Lateral Thwomp._ Why, that thing's no more useful than a cow trying to come downstairs. I got up and looked up the flight of stairs. It was at the top, giving me the death stare.

"How's the view from up there, blockhead." I said. "Can you see this?" I flicked him the bird with both hands. I turned around to leave. As I walked away, I heard Mario's voice over the intercom again.

"I don't know what you think you're going to do when you see me, but if there's one man you should still fear it is me! Just as my soldiers would rather deal with you, than me, so too should you prefer to meet your end at their hands than mine."

"I'd love to see that happen!" I shouted throughout the halls. "So far so good! Can you hear me Mario? Your Army is nothing to me!"

"Honestly, I should have predicted something like this would happen. Instead of just walking straight through my foyer, you decided to veer off into the secret passage. That was always you on our adventures. Straight ahead I would go, but off you would wander. Looking for secrets and shortcuts while the Princess was in peril! I suppose I should have prepared soldiers and precautions for the current path you're taking now."

"Yeah, you should have, dumbass!"

"But do you really think The Red Army is as expendable as you've seen? Our numbers stretch far beyond what you've seen here at the compound. My men line the walls of the main passage you chose to forgo. But, just as well. Surely you would have killed much more of them before they eventually took you down. And I'm not a man to take losses without care." By the time he was done speaking, I had walked into what looked to be the sleeping quarters. It seemed fairly quiet so I pulled out the remaining audio logs I had. Most of them had been busted from my fall. I found one good one and sat it on a nearby nightstand. Before I could check for more, I noticed another good one that already set on the nightstand. I played it. It was from one I hadn't heard yet. Sounded like another koopa.

"The only thing I hate more than a kiss-ass is someone who doesn't know they're a kiss-ass. That Green characters got a green shell and a brown nose-two things I hate. And I'm sure the rest of the red koopas would agree. Guy gets a promotion years ago and he doesn't gloat, but you still have to be pretty stupid not to notice. Orders us around almost as bad as Bowser. But now this Mario guy. Same guy we've been after for years, he's been up in the streets mingling with me and some of my like-minded brothers. Now since we've all been . . . talking, things have been changing here at the compound. Especially our living arrangements. We red koopas basically have our own side of the bunks for our beds. Now for years, Green refused Bowser's offer to move him up to the officer's chambers to sleep-he _is_ an officer after all. But as soon as he see us red koopas showin a little unity, he gets paranoid and we don't see em sleeping here with us lowly sergeants anymore. There's been talk all around the Kingdom that another war is looming. But if you ask me, the battle's already started, right here at Bowser's compound." This Green guy is really popular around here. Or was. Good chance he died in the war. But whatever.

"ROO, ROO!" I hear a loud barking echoing throughout the castle. It sounds just like . . .

"Hello baby bro. Me again. Can you do me favor? You know before I kicked out Bowser, promised to take care of his pet Chain-Chump for him. I've grown awfully attached to him but now I seem to have misplaced him."

"ROO ROO."

"Oh, nevermind. Sounds like he's got your scent! Since he's on his way to you, and you to me, be a good brother and bring him back will you?" I hurried out of the room and turned down the first hallway I saw. It was rather narrow. "Of course, if he kills you, I'm sure he'll treat you like a twig or the vermin you are, and bring you back to me!"

"ROAAAAAAR!" It roared as it turned the corner behind me and closed in on me down the hallway. Those things are getting bigger. This one's huge. I can't see past it down the hall. It's got a light golden hue too.

"Neighbor, come in. How are you holding up?" My walkie-talkie chants. I pull it out and answer while running.

"Elvin!" I shout. "How do I kill a giant chain-chomp in a narrow hallway?"

"Got a star?"

"Did ya give me a star?"

"No."

"Then I don't have one! I have what you gave me!"

"Shoot some fireballs at it to slow it down until you find a way out of the hall. I'm halfway there, by the way."

"Alright cool. I'll let you know if I'm alive long enough to need you! Over and out!" I put it back in my pocket and shoot a couple of fireballs at it.

"HMMMM." It seems to like it and continues on. Damn it, Elvin. I finally reach the end of the hallway. It opens up to a big round room riddled with koopas. The first one is charging toward me as I exit the hall. I leap over him and throw him toward the beast. It catches him in its teeth and eats him alive.

"AAHH. AHHHHH! AHHHHHHH!" This thing is real. Another koopa comes at me. I roll behind him and launch him into the beast's mouth. The koopas begin to scatter. The beast gets confused and starts feasting on all the unlucky ones. I see it pursuing one of the quicker ones and decide to pursue the predator while it's distracted. I chase them through a corridor. It leads to a big open room full of lava. The koopa rolls clear and the beast falls into the lava. I stop just short of it.

"I never understood Bowser's obsession with lava." I said. Not realizing I was there, the koopa turns around quickly. I kick him into the lava before he has time to gasp. He doesn't make any sound. He just starts to burn. I looked up from him. Across the room, on the other side of the huge lava pit, I see a large door-sculpted to look like Bowser-with a large M painted over it. "Found him." Just then, as the koopa is almost done sinking, the Chain-Chomp pops up from the lava and devours him quickly. It was shark-like. I scurried up the stone wall behind me trying to get away. The beast turned towards Mario's door and waded atop the pit, munching on his food. He hadn't even seen me. Thinking quickly, and losing momentum, I leaped from the wall and drew my hammer. I flipped several times on my way down to pick up momentum. I came crashing down on the beast's head with my hammer. He whimpers loudly and charges ahead full speed. He runs face first into the extended ground for the doorway. It sends me flying face first into the door. I rebound toward the ground. The beast whimpers its way below surface. I didn't worry about him as I got up. I hear Mario's voice again. But this time it is faint and softer than before. It wasn't on the intercom. It was _his_ voice. Coming from behind the door.

"Yes. Yes. My brother has shown that he is just like his sibling. Doing whatever it takes to make it to his goal. Come, come in won't you?" The doors opened up for me to enter. "Most men of the Red Army would literally kill for an audience with me. But we have so much lost time to make up for. I think you owe me that before inviting me to the Princess' castle where I will surely be strung up from the gallows as a part of her coronation ceremony! Enter, won't you?" I got a buzz from E. Gadd.

"Neighbor, what's going on?" He asked.

"I found him, Elvin. I found Mario. If no one ever hears from me again, it's probably because of Mario, understand?"

"Understood. I'm closing in on the Kingdom now. Hopefully I'll see you in the break of light."

"Copy. Over and out." I lowered the walkie-talkie and looked through the doorway. It was large and the shadows wouldn't let me see deep into it. I saw one of Green's audio logs on the ground and played it before I went in. I felt like it might help me. Maybe I just wanted to feel like someone was going through this with me. I pressed play.

"Let me tell you the difference between a red koopa and a green koopa. Me and me best friend Red had once been given orders to approach the enemy camp. 'Strite ahead' the Koopa King said. Don't stop going stite. Me, aye, I followed the King's orders. But me friend Red? No, he and the other red koopas didn't listen. Me and Red were approaching the mushroom camp, where we knew they were keeping the princess. Now we come to this huge pitfall. Red's walking in front of me and he sees it, just loike I do. And ya know what he and the rest of the red koopas there do? They just turn around. Just flat out stot walking the otha wiy. Now me and the other green koopas there, we stay steadfast and we fall. Little did we know, there was a tunnel not far below that we landed in. Turns out the princess and a few of her guards were plannin on sneaking out in the heat of battle. Surproised them, we did, and captured the princess. Brought her right back to King Koopa. Meanwhile, Red's group of red-shelled hard-heads suffered a good number of casualties, up there dealing with the Mushroom Kingdom's army. So ya see, the reds were in it for themselves, while we greens were in it for everyone. Loyalty is the difference between our races. It's what _mikes_ a green koopa. And it's what mikes a red koopa fall short." That was the end of that one. I tossed it aside and entered Mario's throne room.

To be continued.


	4. Chapter 4: The Reunion

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Nintendo/Super Mario Universe characters mentioned below. They are property of the aforementioned and their appropriate affiliates. Please support the official games and merchandise.

"When we were but teenagers, brother. Do you remember those times?" Mario said as I passed the threshold into his throne-room. "Before we had to grow up for the Mushroom Kingdom's sake?" I could not see a thing in the room until I was all the way in. It was like magic. Must have been some lighting trick.

"I remember you being manipulative on a smaller scale than now. If that's what you see as good times." I responded as I stepped where he could see me. The room was large. Statues that were presumably of the Koopa King had been crudely reshaped in Mario's image. The throne upon which he sat was huge. Oversized for Mario. Clearly only fit for the Koopa King. And yet, he sat in it. Staring down at me confidently as if this entire place was built for him. As if we both weren't just trespassers. Like me, his get-up was similar to that of the old days. Except it looked slightly more worn. In lieu of eye black, he dawned red strips beneath his eyes. The only greatly different factor on him was that he dawned red a cape. It looked less royal. More martial than anything.

"You." He sighed. "Nothing was ever good enough for you, baby brother. So experienced, and yet so spoiled. I had hoped that your little vacation, your marriage, your journey here, would have beaten that out of you. But I should have known you'd disappoint me again."

"If you've got any more tricks up you sleeve, better throw em at me now. Otherwise, I'm about to drag your sorry ass back to the royals." I said.

"You would work for the family that killed your wife?"

"I'll work for the highest price. And no matter what you've built here in this scrap heap, I know you can't match it."

"I've only ever been married to the greater good brother. But even I have to say, you're a shitty husband."

"Piss off, you've only ever been married to power. And me? Well I'm no husband anymore. I'm just a widower. Now you're coming back with me." He just sat there and smirked.

"Fair enough. Of course I'll have to be anything short of conscious for you to take me to the royals. But before you attempt such a feat, let's make sure we're undisturbed." I heard the doors close behind me and lock. "And, let's make sure we both have the same insight." He pulled an audio log from his overalls. "Do you know what this is, Luigi?"

"Some poor Mushroom Kingdom sap trying to live forever?"

"You catch on fast. I found this the day we finished renovating this room. I want you to hear it, as I have. And when you do, ours will be the only ears to have heard." He played the tape. It sounded frantic. I could hear Green's voice.

"Green's log. Mario and his band of fucking traitors have got us on the ropes! Pinned. The Koopa King's been telling everyone to fole back into the throne room since this morning when the uprising stotted. We're tired. Under-prepared. The throne-room door's locked, but I don't know how long it's gonna hold. This moit be the last you here of-What? King Koopa, what are ya doing? What. I can't go down there. I'll doy! . . . Yes, I trust you, but . . . No, I'm the most loyal troopa, King, but . . . Please! Please don't make me . . . make me . . ." He started whimpering, almost crying. His voice became heavier and more troubled. "Fine. I'll go. But please, if anything does happen, whoever foinds this log tell me family I'm sorry. Sorry, not on behalf of the Koopa King or his loyal forces. But sorry that I failed both them and the Koopa Troopa. Green out."

"You see that?" Mario asked.

"What?" I replied.

"Green recorded this just before me and the Red Army overran this room. But when we finally got through the door, they were gone. All gone. Luigi, the Koopa King and his loyalists, are very much still alive. Join me now, and we can pursue him together."

"Why do we still need to do that? What business do either of us still have with the Koopa King, Mario?!"

"What business? Did you bump your head on your vacation? The same business we've always had with him. To mount his head over the family mantle for everything he's done!"

"We were hired guns, Mario. Hell, we made more off of hunting him down over and over again than we ever would have if we'd have killed him. Hell, we oughta write him a small commission for all his troubles!"

"You just don't fucking get it! Bowser won't stop until this whole Kingdom is his! The royals were idiots to believe he'd be satisfied with the merger!"

"Bowser surrendered. The only war still being fought- you, you fucking caused it! The Mushroom Kingdom might be moving back in the right direction if you weren't so damn obsessed with Bowser!"

"Obsessed?" He leaped from his throne, flipping several times before landing in front of me and flinging is cape away. It was scare-tactic I'm sure. But after the things I've done, honestly, what have I to fear? "Before, the people of this kingdom lived in fear of the Koopa King. I got rid of him. Now they fear each other and despise the crown. The the crown despises them back. But the crown _fears me._ But look at me brother." He raised his his hands high. "What have I to fear? Honestly! So if I'm obsessed, if I'm the one being irrational, why is is that _I'm_ the safest in the Kingdom?" The answer struck a nerve within myself before it even escaped my lips. I sucker-punched him in the nose with my right hand and grabbed it with my left. I cocked my right arm back for a knife-hand thrust.

"Because you're a tyrant!" I launched my knife-hand thrust. My hand suddenly halted itself when I thought I'd made contact. He had caught my hand in his teeth. He smiled at me and bit down hard. I heard my bones cracking and blood spilled out of his mouth. "GAHHHHHHH!" I fell to one knee with my hand still in his bite. He released, and grabbed my right wrist. With control of my arm, he dashed toward the wall, dragging me along. We stopped suddenly and he slung me face-first into the stone wall. I broke through the wall. It was more hollow in this spot. I can barely see, but it looks to be some sort of secret room. I can barely make out a green pipe sticking out of the ground. There's some blurry objects hanging on the wall. Mario kicks down the remaining bit of hollow wall behind me and comes walking into the room. My walkie talkie starts buzzing again.

"Neighbor, give me an update. What's going on?" Elvin sounds frantic.

"Interesting." Mario picks up the walkie talkie but doesn't answer it. "Even after all these years, you require someone to accompany you on your quests. First it was me, and now it's E. Gadd. When you left and Yoshi got too old, I took to getting things done myself. The whole saying goes, 'If you want something done right . . .'" He looked down at me before snickering and tossing the walkie talkie back down at me. "But you can't do anything right by yourself. You never could. You can have your toy. You're going to need it. Probably for the rest of your life."

"You're . . ." I coughed up dust. "You're a fucking psychopath. You hear me? Ah!" I winced in pain from my broken fingers. "You use people and whatever else to get your way. This ain't about Bowser. And you know it!" He takes one of the blurry images off the wall. Up closer, it looks like a suit of some kind. He talks to me calmly as he puts it on.

"The old Lieutenant Green made this suit as a fail-safe. In fact he made two. One prototype and this mastered one." He finished putting it on. His voice became slightly more muffled. "They make it so that it's _safe_ , for people like you and me to go down this tunnel." Safe? "I was hoping that . . . that this reunion would be a more . . . peaceful one. I thought that maybe . . . maybe by the time you got here, you would have come to your senses. I guess I thought that just this once. This time, brotha. Maybe you'd have my back. Not because I was payin you or because of Daisy. But just because, you're my brotha. Hell, you're the only real blood I got left in these parts. But hey, I guess the only times I'm wrong are the times I think you won't disappoint me." He zips up the last part of his suit. "I'd hoped that we could take this trip together." He hopped on top up the pipe and sat on the edge. "Looks like you failed me and the crown." I looked up at him from my downed position. "So you get to lose two things today. You lose your payday. And you lose a brother." He hopped onto the pipe and sat upright on it. "Goodbye brother." I felt someone strike me in the head from behind. I lost consciousness. When I came to I was still on the ground. I could see the blood pooling around me from the back of my head. There is someone walking around me. I can't see clear enough or look up to see who it is. The feet stop and turn towards me when they notice that I'm stirring. I passed back out as they walked toward me. When I came to again, whoever it was looked to be stuffing my limp body into a zip-up bag of sorts. I faded out again. When I came to once more, I was laying over the opening of the pipe, being stomped in the stomach. I guess whoever it was was trying to stuff me down it. I let my body sink into whatever it was. I blacked out again. This time I dreamed. The same dream I've been dreaming. My wife's death. Somehow, my dream is always more vivid than the actual incident.

 **Luigi's dream is a flashback of his wife's death. During Bowser's last stand before his defeat at the hands of the Mario Brothers, Bowser Jr. confronts both brothers before they enter his father's chambers. He stands firmly in front of the door to the chambers with his arms crossed. Princess Peach is hanging in a high cage to his right. The rickety cage looks unstable and hangs above sharp stalagmites. Mario and Luigi desperately look for a way to get her down safely. Daisy stands behind the Mario brothers.**

"Bringing another whore to add to my dad's collection I see?" Bowser Jr. taunted.

"This _whore_ helped my brotha navigate through this castle to your father's chambers quicker than you could have hoped to prepare for. This here's an asset." He pointed behind us.

"Stop calling my wife a whore!" I shouted at everyone.

"Baby bro, calm down. You know what I meant." The rusty cage begins breaking off it's chain as gravity jerks it downward.

"Help me." Princess Peach screams at us as if we were magicians.

"Peach!" Mario shouted at her. "Use the magic we caught! Remember? You practiced for things like this!"

"But I'm no good at it!" She replied. The chain jerked lower.

"You've got no choice now. Just think of any trick that we practiced!"

"What magic?" I asked him.

"You should have seen it bro!" He responded. "Remember when I told you how I killed Kamek while he was trying to kidnap the princess? Well it turns out that magic doesn't just go away. It has to go somewhere. My body rejected it. Too strong I guess. But the princess-" He was interrupted by the loud jerking and clanging of the suspended cage. "You can do it, princess, just try." The cage fell. My brother and I rushed toward the fall, but it was no use. The sharp spikes had pierced the metal of the cage such that it broke into pieces and buried the princess' body. I watched as Mario hopped in it and started throwing metal scraps left and right looking for her. He stopped and dropped his arms slowly when he finally came across the body. "Oh my God."

"Shit!" I said. "She's dead? But, what about the magic?"

"Luigi" he sighed "the magic worked." He climbed aside to reveal Daisy's impaled body. I turned around to see Peach standing behind us with tears and surprise in her eyes. She dropped to her knees.

"I-I'm so sorry." She said, as if those words too, would work magic. I turned back to Daisy. Her eyes were lifeless. She was already dead.

"Hah! Bitch did switching spell instead of a teleporting spell! You Mushroom Kingdom idiots do all the work for me! How's my dad been having trouble with you dumb shits?" Bowser Jr taunted us before fleeing into Bowser's chambers. My brother grabbed me by the collar and began dragging me after him.

"Come on bro! Don't forget why we came here. Don't forget who's fault this is."

 **End of flashback.**

When I finally came back to, I was extremely hot and sweaty. The bag I'd been shoved into was see-through at a point. I saw magma all around me. I could feel myself sinking deeper and deeper in it, but I didn't see a surface in sight. I panicked. I squirmed all around. I stopped when I realized I hadn't burned to death. I looked at my hands. Or tried to anyway. I couldn't see anything past the magma. It was like being miles deep in bright water. I wasn't sure how long I'd been there. I concluded that whoever it was I last saw stuffed me into the prototype suit that Mario was talking about. This must be what it was made for. But why would they send me here if Mario didn't take me with him? When I finally make it back to the royals, they're gonna owe me a fucking life debt. Suddenly, I felt myself start to sink faster and faster. I hit some wall and slid down it and through a hole. I fell down into a large and mostly empty room. It was lazily, but formally decorated. A bit of magma dripped next to me when I hit the ground. That's when I heard a voice on the intercom. A voice I never thought I'd have to hear again. It was just as chilling as it had always been. Not intimidating in tone like my brother's often was, but chilling in shear deepness and texture. It spoke what sounded like a pre-recording. A computer screen extended it's way to my face, but stayed black for the moment.

"Hello friend. I, am Bowser Senior, King and Kommander of the Koopa Kingdom. Are you a citizen, or a civilian?" The screen suddenly turned on and displayed a choice of 'citizen' or 'civilian'. I figured there was a greater chance someone would come looking for me if I chose the former, so I touched 'civilian'. The screen backed away and the recording continued. "Well hello, civilian. If you're not a part of the Koopa Troopa then there's a good chance you're wondering how we got down here. Well don't worry. You're not in any danger. We value the civilian in this city. We protect them. We protect them just like we protect all of our ideals and rights. Here, you are safe from your pursuers and persecutors. You have a slate clean enough to eat off of. Clean enough to see through! Like glass. Yes, glass. Everything, and everyone here is upfront and transparent with their intentions. And as such, there is always a way for everyone to get what they want. That is how we achieve utopia. What is the name of this Utopia? Welcome, to Obsidian!"

To be continued.


	5. Chapter 5: Welcome to Obsidian

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Nintendo/Super Mario Universe characters mentioned below. They are property of the aforementioned and their appropriate affiliates. Please support the official games and merchandise.

So this is where Bowser escaped to. Mario was half-right. And if this is where Bowser is, then Mario can't be far. This asshole is making this job take way longer than expected. I grabbed my walkie talkie and radioed for Gadd.

"Elvin. Elvin, come in. I'm alive and well. Can ya here me?" I said.

"Neighbor! What the heck happened. I feared the worst." He replied.

"Yeah. Something like that. Listen, where are you?"

"I'm inside of Bowser's old castle of course!"

"Shit! Get the hell out of there!"

"Not a chance at the moment. I made a good passageway to get in but I have to wait until the coast is completely clear to leave. Besides there's tons of stuff here I might be able to use to help you. Speaking of which, give me an update."

"I fought my way to Mario. And then . . ."

"And then what?" I sighed.

"He got away. He went down this tunnel and I ended up following him. But I'm guessing he's way ahead of me by now."

"Down a tunnel? So where are you now?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I'm either a few or a few hundred miles underground."

"What on Earth or anywhere beneath are you doing there?"

"While I was gone, Mario led another assault on the Koopa King. Bowser's surviving forces escaped total annihilation. They must have hidden themselves underground. There was nothing but magma on my way down here."

"Hmmm. That sounds like a lot. But it's plausible, given the Koopa King's ability to thrive in molten lava. But how would he get all of his minions to follow him down there to what should almost definitely be their doom? Wait a minute. Luigi, you can't survive molten hot magma either. What are you doing down there and how did you get there without dying?"

"I followed Mario down here. There were these suits that one of Bowser's scientists made. He used one to get down here and I used one to follow him. Now I don't know where he is, but I suspect that this place is a thriving community by now. And Mario's probably wrecking it as we speak."

"Keep that suit on, no matter what, neighbor."

"I'll manage. You just don't get yourself killed."

"Don't underestimate old E. Gadd. I'll come through for both of us like I always did."

"Fair enough. I'll find Mario and find a way out of here. If you're trying to be useful, see if anything in that castle tells me how to get back to the surface. Luigi out." I saw the exit of the lobby and walked toward it. Green's last log that I still have is rustling around beneath my suit. It was safe to unzip it now that the lava was was outside the walls and not in my face. I pulled the log from the suit and listened before going any closer to the door.

"Green's log. The King's got a few . . . occasional mental faults. But no one's perfect. It's the cause that he so justly leads that keeps us loyalists boy his soide. But he's not so bad a sciointist himself. Well sure I'm the specialist but he knows rudimentary things at least. He's been giving me this genetic code to experiment with and attempt ta replikite. He says it's the future of the Koopa Kingdom. Aye, and I get to usher it in!" With that, I approached the double doors. They opened automatically. They were the first part of a corridor. Two green koopas are standing at the opposite side. They hardly acknowledge me. There is a glimmering sign that says, "Welcome to Obsidian" Above the door they guard. I approached the door.

"Um, I'd like to enter?" I said, hoping they wouldn't recognize me from behind the dirty window of the diving suit. Without answering, the one on the right fell over. Blood poured out of his shell. His impact knocked his partner who fell forward. He bare a red bloody scribble on the back of his neck. I couldn't quite tell what it was supposed to say. I noticed that these green koopas had small spikes on their shell. Weird, but their no interest to me this way. Mario must have gotten to them already. He works fast. I stepped through the double-door behind them. On the other side was what looked to be a huge metropolis. Riddled with skyscrapers and businesses alike. Hell, it looked to be in better condition than the Mushroom Kingdom right now. The only failing quality was that the skies were died a dire orange tint. Not like when Daisy and I would watch the sunset. This was more grim. Like the first sunset I watched after she died. Looking closer, I saw that the sky was actually a huge dome, stretching farther than the eye could see. The dire orange was the magma pressing against it. "Amazing." I said. "A see-through dome that resists molten hot magma." I began making my way through the city. Everything looked fairly normal. It was weird to see Bowser's minions in their daily lives. There were restaurants, daycare centers, banks. This a place to live. Mario was definitely wrong. There's no way the Koopa King is coming back from this. Especially if he knew what the surface looked like now. Hell, maybe if Daisy and I would have moved here, we could have lived happily ever after. I'm sure I could have made some sort of deal with Bows-Oh wait. That's right. I killed his son.* Just then, I saw a fire-truck and an ambulance drive by, sirens blaring. I looked ahead to see a couple of goombas being carried out of a convenience store on stretchers. I ran over to get a good look. "What happened here?" I asked a neighboring onlooker.

"Poor folks at Green's Goods got robbed. Some guy runs in there, works em both over real good. Then cleans em out. Poor folks. Hope the kids weren't in there to see." The shy guy said.

"Wait, did you just say Green's Goods?" I asked.

"Yeah, ya know. Green's Goods. Same people from Green Enterprises. I tell ya, that food is good, good for ya, and good for your wallet. I hope they get everything situated. Say, I'm Shaun. What's your name, guy?"

"Lynus." I answered. I have nothing to gain and everything to lose from anyone here knowing my identity. The diving suit must have hidden my face pretty well.

"Well you're obviously not from around these parts, are ya?"

"How could you tell?"

"Well you're wearing an STD suit for starters."

"A WHAT!" I panicked and began searching frantically for a zipper.

"Typical tourist. You don't even know the common vernacular for the Sub-Subterranean Diver's suit. The STD suit."

"The . . ." I stopped searching and scowled. "The what?"

"Yeah people were really turned off by the name at first. Green Enterprises has notoriously bad marketing, but their products more than make up for it. Looks like you're wearing a really old model and you still made it here in one piece. But take it from me Lynus, that STD suit screams tourist. Be careful."

"I will, thanks for the tip, Shaun was it?"

"No problem. It's my duty as a civilian here in the greatest city ever built to make sure the newbies feel welcome. Welcome to Obsidian kid." With that, he propelled his way up and off the scene. May not have been my smartest move, carrying on a full conversation as soon as I got here. But at least he seemed to buy the Lynus bit. I walked up to the convenience store to check out the scene. A couple of green hammer bros ran up and stopped me at the yellow tape. Their shells were also oddly marked with spikes.

"Behind the tape sir." One said.

"Who did this?" I asked.

"Do you know the victims?"

"Yes, I'm the manager." I thought on my feet, I had to see if this was Mario's footprint.

"Ok, we'll have to get your name; come on through." We dipped beneath the tape and started walking toward the store. "There's no confirmation yet, but your employees insist that it was Luigi of the Mushroom Kingdom. We haven't looked at the footage yet, but there's no way it could be Luigi. No one that side of the underground even knows about Obsidian. But the description they gave seems to match."

"Do we know where he escaped to?"

"Ask these poor folks." He said as we stopped by stretcher. I asked the old lady goomba being carried out.

"Which way did he go ma'am?"

"I don't know. He was looking for Lieutenant Green. Like we'd know where the hell he is. We just work here *cough, cough*" I looked over at the store. Entrance was a wrecked. There's a spark going on near the entrance.

"Thanks ma'am, that's all I need." I said as I jogged away from the scene.

"Wait, we need your statement." One of the cops said.

"Sorry, no time." I said quickening my pace. As I leaped over the yellow tape, the convenience store exploded. The explosion consumed everything short of the tape. The medics, the employees, the spiked hammer bros, everything. "So he robs the store and plants a bob-obm. I fat one too. Must be trying to implicate me to get everyone's attention away from him." I ducked into an alley so that no one would see me running from the ruins. I started walking to the other side of the buildings. There's a vagrant sitting next to a garbage can. From the little light that shines on him, I can see that he is a toad. He looks badly beaten and his clothes are worn. He looks up and speaks to me.

"You let all those people die just now. Why?" He doesn't sound completely sober. But he does sound completely serious.

"Why didn't the hammer bro cops save em? Why was it my job?" I responded.

"You could have at least yelled run. I may not look like I know much. But a feller next to me yells run, I get my ass up and *belch* haul ass."

"Yeah, well, what's it to you, old man?" I began walking past him.

"You from up there with the Mushroom Kingdom, ain't you?"

"No." I said.

"Yeah you is. Luigi, that's your name. You clean your way through hordes of koopas back in the day. How the hell you get down here?"

"Ya know old guy, I could ask you the same thing." I crouch down and look him in the eye. "You're a toad. How the hell did you get down here?"

"Come closer and I'll whisper it in yer ear. HEHEHE!" He snickered. I raised my fist and punched the wall behind him. I left a crater. "Son, if I was afraid a' you or death, I wouldn't have lived through the War. I wouldn't be down here in the first place. You see all these scars?"

"It's dark, you idiot." I said to him.

"Well, you're Luigi. We both know what you're capable of. Give us some light." I hesitated. There was something to this guy. I opened my palm next to his head and spawned a small thunderbolt. "Well I'll be damned. You some sort of thunder boy now?"

"Looks like you don't know as much about me as you thought old man."

"Boy you even stupider than you look in that old-ass STD suit."

"Oh my goodness." I sighed.

"Never show what you got hidden up yo sleeve." He said as he looked down at his abdomen. Every area not covered with the tattered toad vest was bruised, scratched, scarred. He pointed to a very dark spot over the left side of his chest. "There used to be a hole in my chest that ran all the way to my back. I should be dead. But death be half belief. And I didn't believe the act."

"How . . . how did you get down here?"

"Now if I told you that, I'd be showing my hand." He passed out against the wall. I left him were he sat. There's an audio log not far from him. I take it and store it away. I walked through to the other side of the alley. From what I gather, Mario's running around wearing a green version of his usual getup. These folks down here haven't seen me in ages. They don't know the difference. That makes sense as a chess move but it kinda pisses me off that he might be running around with an L on his hat. I see a clothing store across the street. _Green's Getups_. I have to get out of this STD suit. I don't like the name of it. I cross the street and enter the store. I forgot I came to a place for Bowser's minions mostly. There were hardly things that humans wear. Mostly shells, shy-guy masks, the goomba shoes. I rushed to find a shirt and some pants. I took whatever looked the most appealing at a glance. I brought it all to the front register to checkout. A green koopa with spikes coming out of his shell is working cashier.

"Weird getup." He said. I looked down and saw that I had picked out a green shirt and blue overalls.

"Hang on let me try again." I said rushing around to collect a different set of clothes.

"That's better, but still weird." I looked down and saw a similar arrangement with a red shirt instead.

"Ok, one more time." I rushed around and put together some black jogging pants, white tennis shoes, and shirt that read Shell of a life. Seems like something the locals here would wear.

"Alright, I can dig it." He rung me up. When I tried to pay, he stopped and looked puzzled.

"What's wrong?"

"That money's no good here man. Obsidian cash only."

"Obsidian what?"

"Fuckin tourist."

"Okay, what if I could offer you something better than money?"

"This isn't that kind of store. Obsidian cash only." Just then a sharped dressed lakitu flies into the room. His voice is loud and obnoxious.

"Terry, what's taking you so long? What kind of salesman let's a man bring up two different outfits he doesn't like. This here is exactly why your commission line's gonna continue to read zero every check. Keep it up Terry. Green Enterprises expects us to be a shining example of why Obsidian is the Utopia that it is. If you don't like someone's outfit, you're fine to say that. But you still gotta make sure you make a sale! Green Enterprises relies on us too much for its endeavors for you to show such lackluster sales skills. Realize that Obsidian is counting on you boy." He flew to the back of the store. Terry was awfully quiet at that point before finally responding to me.

"So what else you got?" I thought on my feet.

"I got knowledge." I said as I pulled out the old toad's audio log and pressed play. His voice was as old and damaged as I remembered seeing him.

"Utopia my mushroom-retainin, vest-wearing, hole-in-the-chest-bearing ass. Fuckin locals act like they've never seen a toad before. I get mugged in the streets just for how I look and where I'm from. Doesn't that go against the whole point of this place? Free from persecutors? This sucks. Can't go back home. Stuck here with everyone hating me just because I used to live in the Kingdom. Hm. I tell ya what though. I still didn't tell em the trick up my sleeve. They wanted to know how I got here. They wanna know if I can go back to the surface. Well I can. But I won't. And anyone that'd to know why, is on the other side of the surface." Terry was silent with his arms crossed for an uncomfortable amount of time. He scowled before finally responding.

"Take the clothes, I don't care. Fuckin Larry can kiss my ass. I quit." He stormed away from the counter. I'm not a man with time to let things affect me, so I take the clothes and dart out of the store. Police cars with more loud sirens are blaring about the site that I fled moments ago. I'm sure to be a suspect in this suit. I need a place to change. I see a sewer cover and take full advantage. When I closed the lid to my entrance it was unusually bright in the tunnel way. The light was coming from far away. It's a dire orange light, just like the sky above. Then I hear voices. They're coming from behind me. I turn around to see another light in the distance. It looks more like a flashlight. There's two of them, moving. A couple of blue-shelled koopas, it looks like. Shit! I can hear them talking. Sounds like he's giving advice or something.

"Stick with me rookie, and you'll learn the ropes in no time. But don't take this job lightly. Regular folk think the Koopa King runs this city. Business men think the Lieutenant Green runs this place. Well that might be right in a matter of speaking. But when it comes to the keeping this place from going to hell in a matter of hours, we're the main defense." Sounds confident in whatever he's talking about. But I could hear the youth in his partner's voice as he responded.

"How's that sir?"

"Son, this ain't no regular sewer. Don't forget that. Yeah, we got sewage that runs through here. But even more important is the treatment fluids. The treatment fluids, and the frickin magma that runs through here." Magma? I turned around to see that the dire orange light was in fact magma. It had gained ground in my direction. I had no choice but to approach the koopas unless I stayed in my STD suit for the time being. I kept the suit on, but kept my clothes in hand as I charged at them. They hear me before they see me. "What's that noise?" When I step into the range for their headlights, I toss my shirt at the older one on the right. The younger on steps back and looks at his blinded partner. In his distraction, I unzip my suit and toss my hammer at the him. It hits dead in the center of his forehead, smashing the attached flashlight to bits. He falls flat on his shell as his light goes away. The older one snatches the shirt away from his face and panics when he sees me. My STD suit has fallen off. My face is clearly visible. The L on my hat is clearly recognizable. "Wait, don't hurt us man. We don't want no trouble. No one here does. We ain't soldiers! Well, he ain't! I used to be, but that's behind me now! I work the sewers man, I'm blue collar, blue shell. Blue collar, Blue shell, man!"

"Calm down!" I said. "Answer my questions and you might live."

"Wait, we got to get out of this channel. That magma's gonna get here soon." I turn around to see the magma is in fact approaching faster than it looked before. "Here, go through this shortcut." He lifts up a slab on the wall next to him that reveals a crawl space. "You threw us off our timing so we won't be able to treat that flow like we wanna. But if we don't treat it, this city could very easily get consumed by magma. You go on in." He grabs a nearby lever. "I'll use the emergency treatment switch this time around, but you both gotta get clear before I pull it. Go on now, crawl through."

"How do I know I can trust you?" He picks up his partner, stuffs him in the crawl space, and kicks him through it.

"Look Luigi, this ain't that hell hole you call home. This is Obsidian. And in Obsidian, I got no reason to lie. Now go on now, the magma's getting closer." I scowled and hopped in the space and made my way. I hear him pull the lever behind me. Then I hear a bunch of spraying. Then I hear him hop in behind me and shut the hatch. "Hurry up. That spray is what keeps the magma from dissolving the tunnels. It's very toxic." When we make it to the other side, his partner is laying unconscious on the ground outside the crawlspace. As I step out of the crawl space, I hear the older one shout from behind me. "You forgot these." He tosses my STD suit as well as the clothes I had stolen. He then steps out. His headlight is shining bright on my face. But I don't wince. "So how can I help you?" I was surprised.

"First question." I said. "Aren't you worried I'll kill you?"

"Son, this is Obsidian. Everyone here is open and honest. And anyone that isn't knows where the hell they can go. You see that kid you knocked out there? Only reason he never joined the koopa troopa is because he was too young. Now that he's of age, he still wants to serve the Koopa Kingdom as it thrives. This boy is one of the most loyal koopas you'll ever meet. And even more important, he's a piece of Obsidian's most precious resource. That is if you ain't killed him." I took pause.

"Open and honest?" I asked. "If we're all such good people, why even the need for police or martial law?"

"They ain't police. Just like us, they're preserving freedom. Now there's a place we let all our low-lives go that absolutely have to be a bother. But trust me, you don't wanna go there."

"Fair enough. Now what do you know about my brother being here?"

"Here?" The old man looked surprised. "Here in Obsidian?" Both Mario Brothers here in Obsidian? Oh shit, this ain't no good." The younger one starts coming to and stirring on the ground next to him. "Look, none of us down here want anymore trouble with either of you boys or the Mushroom Kingdom. This kid might be too young to remember, but I've watched you and your brother kill scores of my friends! We don't want any trouble with-"

"Poison Mushrooms, old man!" I interrupted. "You could have just said you didn't know. I asked you one question. Can ya stay on topic for even a second?" He sighed as his partner stood back to his feet.

"What happened?" The young one asked, grimacing and putting his hard hat back on. He saw me. "You!"

"Calm down kid." His partner said placing a hand on his shell. "Look, Luigi, we're nearing the end of a 12 hour shift that you probably just turned into a 14-hour shift with that performance back there. Most of our days, hell most of our lives are spent down here!"

"They are?" The younger one asked.

"Yeah kid. They are. Don't get me wrong, we get paid enough to not worry about a thing. But shell if we have time to spend it. Anyway, we don't have any idea what's going on up there. We've been down here all night and all day."

"Hm." I said. "Nevermind then. Just tell me how to get to the Koopa King's lair then. I'm sure I'll find him there."

"You'll have to go all the way north down Lucid Lane. That's the main street here in Obsidian that you should have arrived on. It runs from the Welcome Center, all the way north to Obsidian Sea. There, you'll find the Koopa King. By the way, I'm-"

"No need for names." I stopped him. "I don't have business with a couple of sewer dwellers. I don't ever expect to see you again anyhow. Names would just build attachments." I turned to walk away.

"Is a sewer dweller so different from a plumber?" The older one asked. "Our line of work practically bonds us as kindred. Least you could do is tell us what you're doing here."

"No, the least I could tell you is nothing. We're not kindred. I don't need to know your names or anything about you."

"Does that make it harder for you to kill us?" The younger one piped up. I stopped and turned halfway around to respond.

"Harder?" I said. "You think knowing anything about you turtles would make it hard for me to kill you?" I took off my hat and placed it on the ground beside me as I turned to face them. "You know how many Mushroom Kingdom citizens I've killed since the war?" I unbuttoned my overalls. "The citizens I once swore to protect?" I kicked away my overalls and started putting on the pants form the clothing shop. "You wanna know what I'm doing here?" I put on the shirt that read 'Shell of a Life'. I'm here to do the same thing I did on the surface." I put on the white tennis shoes. "Except this time it's just a little more personal. See I'm here to kill Mario and drag his sorry corpse back to the royals. That's right. The only real family I got left alive and I'm gonna kill him on sight. It won't be quick. It won't be painful. And I'll have no problem looking him in his soulless eyes as I do it. But you wanna know what's gonna make this kill special? Not the fact that he's my brother. No. The only reason I'm gonna relish it is because I'm gonna get enough money from his head than ever before. Even my own brother's head, is no different than the head on a dollar bill to me. So if I'm here to kill my own brother for a big buck . . ." I put my L-cap on. What the fuck makes you think I won't kill you both here right now?" They both were silent. "Hm." I closed my eyes and smirked. "As we speak, my brother is either killing as many civilians as he can and framing me for it, making his way to Bowser, or both. Either way, anyone in his path _is_ going to die. And anyone in the way of me getting to him, may as well be dead too. So there, this is Obsidian and I've been as crystal clear as I can be with you. _Someone_ you know is in danger. And there's nothing you can do about it." I left my STD suit and old clothes, save for my hat. I saw a manhole just ahead near a ladder to the left. I headed for it.

"Hey Luigi." The old man called. I turned around one more time.

"What?"

"It probably means something to ya, but I suggest not wearing the hat."

"Hm. Fair enough." I put my hat in my pocket and hopped to the top of the ladder. I pressed my hand against the manhole cover.

"Oh, and Luigi, the shirt might-"

"What now, old man?" He sighed.

"Nothing. Just don't hurt my wife."

"Sorry old timer." I said as I lifted the cover and fled. "No promises."

To be continued.


	6. Chapter 6: Opaque

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Nintendo/Super Mario Universe characters mentioned below. They are property of the aforementioned and their appropriate affiliates. Please support the official games and merchandise.

I'm-a-Luigi. The one, the only. Plumber, exterminator, mercenary, bloodhound. Whichever makes you more comfortable. My most recent, and my most lucrative ventures have been with the latter. It's only the first few victims that really matter. Really leave an impression on you. The rest, the dozens, maybe hundreds, I don't know. Those were the ones I failed to remember. Who my next victim is doesn't usually matter. Not that much. So in the grand scheme of things, save for money, what makes Mario's head worth any more than the rest? I casually walked through the alleys and made my way back to Lucid Lane. In the far distance, I can see sirens back where the bomb went off. I continued in the opposite direction. I see a bus at a bus stop up ahead. I ran to catch it before it left. I filed in after a couple of koopas. I froze up when I got to the driver. I forgot I didn't have any money for this city. I prepared to haggle with the driver.

"Uh" I said in a deeper voice than usual. I couldn't risk sounding like a Mario Brother. "Look I just need a ride to the atm, I can pay ya then." I said looking down. When I tilted my head to look up, I saw that the driver was a goomba. He responded in a voice effortlessly deeper than mine.

"You're not from around here are you?" He said casually. "Obsidian City Bus system is free to the public kid." He looks at my shirt and chuckles. "Just where are you heading?"

"Where does this bus go?" I asked him.

"It runs the length of Lucid Lane. All the way up, then all the way back down." He answered.

"That works fine." I said. I didn't want to give up where I was going. I was thinly disguised as is. Of course it's the thinly veiled disguises my brother and I had the most success with. Hell, even Clark Kent only ever wears glasses. "I'll get off when I'm ready." I sit in the seat behind the driver. He starts driving.

"So you here for business or pleasure?" He asked.

"Uh . . ."

"Ha. Just kidding. It's gotta be both for you to be down here. It's not often that your kind pops up around here though."

"Yeah, it's uh, circumstantial." I said.

"I bet. No worries though. Your past isn't questioned here. Obsidian is a crystal clear new start. I'm not concerned about the stops you've made in the past. I only mean to get you to your next one."

"Yeah well, let's make it quick then. And how are you driving the bus with no arms?" I asked. He scowled.

"Little tip kid. Lucid Lane is the longest road in Obsidian. It takes us through almost every part of town. There's a lot of different walks of life and . . . cultures. Dressed like you are, I'd be careful on it."

"Yeah yeah, I gotcha." I said as I slouched back and looked out of the window.

 **Flashback, Luigi and Daisy are talking in the comfort of their home.***

"Hey, Daisy, have you seen my gloves?" I asked as I opened the oven.

"They're here on the coffee table. Do you need them?" She asked from inside the living room. She always sounds like she's concerned, even for the simplest things. Such a stark contrast to her pink-dressed counterpart.

"No honey, I'm fine. I just like to know where they are." I took the pan of cookies out of the oven. It doubled as a plate. Elvin's design. He does have his uses. Always has. I brought the cookies into the living room and sat them on the table nearest my wife.

"Got another call from the Kingdom today. I let it go to voice-mail." She said as she took a cookie. I make the chocolate chips ever so small. They dissolve themselves into the cookie. She smiles and closes her eyes in satisfaction. I love it when she makes that face.

"Great choice." I said.

"Do you think they'll ever leave us alone?" She asked.

"Not this generation of royals."

"Oh don't say it like that. That name sounds so derogatory."

"Well that's what they are." I said as I sat on the couch next to her.

"I feel like maybe we didn't move far enough. We can't have them and your brother still calling us for things when we have kids. When do you suppose he'll settle down like you?"

"His sense of value is a little, different, Daisy. Even if he knew he found the right one, it wouldn't be that simple for him. But you may be right about the distance. Not like we can leave Elvin to babysit."

"You leave Elvin alone. I'm sure he'd be a great caretaker." She scowled.

"Come on, Love, you know that guy ain't altogether right in the head." I smirked back at her.

"He's got a good heart."

"And a way's to go with his people skills." I said. She smirked back at me.

"What would we name them?"

"Name who?" I said.

"Our kids."

"Well, if we had a daughter, I like Amethyst."

"Amethyst." She says with a hint of question.

"Well what about you?" I asked. "What names do you like?"

"Hm. I like Lynus." She said softly, resting her head on my shoulder.

"Lynus, eh?" I said.

 ***BOOOOM! SHHHHHHHHH BANG!***

When I woke up, the bus was sliding on it's side and I was bouncing about the isle. I saw that the windshield was busted almost clean out. The bus is rotating on it's side while sliding quickly down the street. I oriented myself so that my feet touched the ceiling and kept running forward. When I got near the front of the bus, I braced for impact and left my feet. I landed on the hard pavement and skidded to a stop. I turned to see the bus still scraping violently down the street. It crosses over a bridge and slams against the railing. It's a bus so the railing doesn't do much. A good length of the railing gives and the bus hangs a third of the way off the bridge. A few people fall out of the windows. I can hear the familiar splash of bodies sinking into the magma that must have been running through below. The broken windshield of the bus points in my direction as the bus lies on it's side. The driver comes staggering through the busted windshield. Suddenly I smell something weird and pass out. I awakened again to the sound of loud grunts. I'm being carried by two random shy guys. There is one hanging flickering light illuminating the room. My ears are being assaulted with moans and sniffles. I shake myself free of their grip and sweep them both to the floor. I look around me and the whole room is filled with shady looking minions of Bowser's. Of course every koopa has the protruding spikes. They're all dressed in mostly black. One of them is wearing the same shirt as me that reads _Shell of a Life_. They all begin to approach me slowly. I torched the shy guys on the ground below me with shots of fire and that was enough to send everyone in the room at me with whips, knives and chains. The light goes out as a koopa swings a chain at me. I catch it in the darkness and yank it from his grip. I send volts of electricity through the chain to light up the areas around it. I begin laying waist to the goons around me. I feel a hard kick in my side. I grab the leg and pop the knee out of place. I hear a knife cutting through the air and leap clear. I charge up a fireball that reflects on the knife and toss the fire at it.

"Ah. AHHH!" They screamed as they erupted in flames. I filled the room with thunder and fire until all of the bodies stopped rushing at me. I sparked one more thunderbolt in my hand to illuminate the room. The bodies lay bleeding all over. I see a lakitu trying to crawl away. I walked up behind him, raised my foot high and smashed his head in.

"Where the hell am I?" I said panting. It was hard to stand given the bus crash. But I felt sleepy as well. From another room, though, I could hear my brother's voice.

"You really are my brother. Merciless, unforgiving." Mario said. He sighed hard. I could barely hear him. He's in a different room.

"Alright bro." I said faintly. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be. Where are you?" I asked. I then noticed a room door in the corner. I walked up to the door. He spoke again as I grabbed the door knob.

"How do you know those people weren't trying to help you? This city is a lot different from the Mushroom Kingdom, Luigi." He said as I opened the door. I saw him sitting on the far opposite side of the room behind a desk. I ceased my thunderbolt when I saw that he was next to a dimlit lamp. He was slumped back.

"You ambush my bus, bro?" I said, still panting.

"Luigi, sit down, you look terrible." He says. It's an awkward moment to show concern. A female koopa's head suddenly raised up from behind the desk.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Men are talking sweetheart, back to work." He said pushing her head back down. He gasped heavily once her head was out of sight. "Luigi, I figured you might be stupid enough to follow me down here. But I figured you'd at least be smart about it. You look like you've had a rough day brotha."

"Yeah, well when I bring you in, I'll be able to afford a new day." It took two breaths to say that sentence."

"Luigi, you clothes are ruined, you're breathing heavy, did you not go through the Welcome Center annex?"

"The what?"

"Oh yeah, that's right, I killed the welcome koopas. Luigi if there's one thing you should have learned in our adventures it's to get some sort of info on where the hell you're going! Look, this is Obsidian, a city located God knows how many miles underground. There's magma everywhere. The Green smuck who built those suits we used to get down here, he built a ventilation system that basically helps keep everything that doesn't live in lava alive. You can't feel it, but it's really fuckin hot down here in Obsidian. Hotter than a man is supposed to withstand. You look like you're giving in to the elements." At that moment in his lecture I fell to one knee.

"You've got me." I said to him. "You got me way the fuck down here in the name of a redundant paycheck. Tell me something, Mario. Why?"

"Why what?" He asked.

"What kept you from settling down? Avoiding all this?"

"Settling down?"

"Yeah. I know you and Toadstool were never as close as Daisy and I but I'm sure had you at least-"

"Here's something you ought to hear, baby brotha." I hear him press play on an audio log.

"Green's log. Obsidian's as well off as any city in the world. I made sure it's got its goods, its services, its transportation. But unfortunately, the city has already developed its own, cultural regions. Lucid Lane stretches across many walks of loif. Just a couple of moils from the Obsidian Sea, there's a real rough part-a-town. We in Obsidian have taken to calling it Opaque. It's the one plice in Obsidian where croim rates are through the roof. Drug dealers, murderers, thieves, rapists. Hell, that part-a-town looks just loik the Mushroom Kingdom did when we left it. Law enforcement's given up on it and designated it the "free zone". Obsidian is a positively communal place. So if anyone insists on harming those around them and being less than wholesome, they can go to Opaque. In fact, I know some folks in Opaque that'll show a fella a good time. Been down there three toims this month. If they see you in Opaque with a shirt that reads _Shell of a Life_ they identify you as one of their own and next thing you know, you're shell-deep in the middle of an Obsidian-style sex game. Now there's a lady koopa down there. Not sure what her real nime is. She makes us call her Saphire. I guess because she's a blue shell? Eh, a whore's a whore. And making fun of the why she mikes a living is against the whole point of Obsidian. I really did usher in a whole new world." The tape stopped there.

"See that brother?" Mario said. "I had to work to get my hands on this. Because I knew I would need something like this. I think that's another difference between you and I, brotha. My desire to kill the Koopa King does not blind me. It simply gives me tunnel vision. But even through the tunnel, I make sure to prepare myself. Use every resource possible. I don't charge blindly at my target with the saving grace of an aging scientist in my ear." Just then, the lady koopa raised her head again, took a breath and said:

"Wait, did I just hear my name on that tape?" I looked up to see my brother snarling at her.

"I said" He grabbed her head with both hands. "The men" he squeezed her head as hard as he could. "ARE TALKING!" He snapped her neck and her head hung limply to the side. "Sorry about that." He pulled his pants back up and stepped from behind the desk. He simply wore jeans and a green shirt. And sure enough, a green hat with an L on it. "It's a pity when someone can't fulfill their service obligations."

"I take it Peach just plain didn't want you then?" I said teasingly, still doubled over. He gave me a mean look before reaching into his pocket. He got closer to me and pulled out a small packet of green liquid. He held it over me. I instinctively raised my hand to block it. He burst the packet and it spilled all over me.

"Isn't this the perfect picture? Which one of us can really be said to be the bad guy here? The one saving his brother from dehydration and heat exhaustion? Or the one hunting down his own brother for money? Maybe after this, you'll be thinking straight. Sleep tight. But not too long." He walked away as I fell all the way to the floor. I passed out as I watched his feet pass the threshold. I awakened to the sound of E. Gadd's voice.

"Neighbor, please pick up. Please. Don't do this to me." He said.

"Calm down, Elvin." I said, getting up and pulling the walkie talkie from my pocket. "I'm fine."

"Are you? It's almost morning. Been trying to reach you all night!"

"I'm fine. I shouldn't be down here much longer. I know where I have to go. I know where my brother's going."

"Just how are you gonna get back here?"

"I'm sure the Koopa King will know how."

"I thought you were looking for Mario?"

"I am."

"Well then I think I can help you. Where are you now?"

"Some place called Opaque."

"Hm. Well I've come across a theoretical blueprint of Obsidian. Is Opaque on Lucid Lane?"

"Yeah." I said getting up and walking toward the door. I felt a lot better than when I passed out. I see another audio log at the desk that Mario has left behind. I grab it before heading out. I'm stepping over a lot of bodies as I leave. The dead shy guy near the door has an audio log in his hand. I take that one as well.

"Well you don't have that much farther to go until you reach the Obsidian Sea. The Koopa King should be just on the other side of it."

"Elvin, how can there be a "sea" underground?" I asked him as I made my way outside. I looked down the street and saw a group of large spiked shelled hammer bros pulling the bus clear of the railway.

"By the looks of what's in front of me, this Green fellow may be an even better mind than me. He basically built a city in a homemade volcano, I think he can manipulate an aquifer, no problem."

"So how do I get there?"

"Jut head north. But be careful, security is sure to intensify the closer you get."

"Don't worry about me Elvin. How are you holding up?" I said as I began walking in the original direction of the bus.

"It's scary in here neighbor. I never found the room you said you left through. And the whole place is crawling with Reds. I'm almost home free though. If I can just get outside, maybe get to the chopper, I can get to the Castle and tell the princess about what we found."

"You won't tell her a damn thing, Elvin."

"What? Why not. She's our employer for the time being."

"What do you mean _our_ employer?" He was silent for a moment. "Look Elvin, we're not in that business anymore. This is literally a stand alone . . . thing."

"But, we're partners." He said.

"We're not partners anymore Elvin. We don't do that stuff anymore. We're neighbors now. Just neighbors who . . ."

"Help each other go the Mushroom Kingdom to kill your brother?" He finished for me.

"Neighbors who aren't gonna go to the royals about anything right now!" I snapped back.

"Well then just how am I supposed to stay safe around here? What if my chopper's no longer in one piece. I had to stay here all night trying to make sure you were alive. The Sun's coming up. They may see my chopper and confiscate it. Or worse!"

"Well that's why we're more than partners now. We're neighbors. You came all this way just to help me out. And I'm gonna be the one to help you out of your jam. Just don't trust anyone but me right now. We had people we chose to trust when we were just partners in business. But it's just you and me now, Elvin. Don't go bringing in people we don't know we can trust yet. Is that clear?" He was a discomforting amount of silent. "Elvin!"

"Yeah, yeah, neighbor. I got it."

"I'll see you on the other side, Elvin. Hold on. Luigi out." I pocketed my walkie talkie as I walked past the the hulking koopas. They had rope tied to their shells and to the bus as they muscled it clear of harms way. I pulled out the dead shy guy's audio log and played it as I made way down the street. As I'm pulling it out, a bus pulls up near me and stops. There's no bus stop in sight. I got suspicious when the door opened. Another goomba at the wheel. He asks me:

"You one of those unlucky folks on the last bus?" He asked me.

"I am." I replied.

"Well hop on. Sorry for the inconvenience. The city of Obsidian hopes you'll still continue to choose us as your transportation choice."

"You guys are a hospitable bunch." I said walking up the stairs to the bus.

"Get used to it. Welcome to Obsidian." I sat in the back and played the audio log on a low volume. The guy on the recording sounds unnervingly calm. If dead men could talk, they would sound like this:

"This, this *cough* is probably what I deserve on some level. I gotta be to work in the morning at 7am. Hm. If I'm bleeding to death and all I'm thinking about is being late to work, maybe there's a reason I been coming to Opaque every night. The city where everyone's wholesome and transparent. I forgot that still meant I had to have something real to live for. I'm *cough* I'm pretty sure the guy that just killed everyone is Luigi. Not sure how the hell he got here. But I guess that's just the Mushroom Kingdom way. Kill what they don't understand. Chase it to the pits of hell if they have to. Whoever finds this, I won't tell you my name, just know that I'm just a shy guy who actually died in a miserable place like Opaque." Poor guy. I say that to myself as if I weren't directly responsible for his death. I feel the bus start to slow down.

"End of the line!" The driver shouts. I hop up in reaction.

"This is my stop." I say.

"Come to see the crystal clear water, huh?" The driver says.

"Uh, yeah." I say as I hurry off the bus. There is a dock on a shoreline. I walk up the boards. There is another toad, this time with flannel and fishing gear on, sitting at the edge of the dock ahead. I've killed many like him before. He is untying a boat from the dock. He is singing a song as I approach.

 _There's a fountain free_

 _Tis for you and me_

 _Let us haste, oh hasten to the brink_

 _Tis the fount' of love_

 _From the source above_

 _And He bids, us all freely drink_

"Going out fishing?" I asked as I approached from behind. He responds in a pleasant voice, but an uppity tone.

"Now what fish do you suppose might be swimming around here this many miles underground? No I just come out here to enjoy the waters. Prettier than any I've seen on the surface." I took a look at the sea. He was right.

"Mind if I take a ride with you?" I asked.

"I see no reason why not." He said as he hopped in the boat and motioned for me to follow suit. I hopped in after him.

"By the way, my name is Lynus." I said to him.

"You're no more a Lynus than I am the ruler of Obsidian. But that's okay son. I'm not one for names. I'm sure we'll never see each other again." He starts paddling us out into open water. I don't see a fortress or anything yet so I let him paddle aimlessly. "What's important is this moment by the most beautiful place this side of the surface." It was actually the most beautiful place either side of the surface, but I didn't want to argue. It was beauty personified as a body of water. It was downright . . . distracting. But in a way that I didn't care. I knew I still had to drag my brother from here all the way to the surface and probably leave a trail of bodies behind me while I did it. I knew I had to get to the surface before anything bad might have happened to Elvin. And when all this was over I was still going to leave the Kingdom. I would still live alone. Daisy would still be dead. I'd just be an even wealthier widower. Daisy is still never coming back. But this sea is the most beautiful thing I've seen since she died. It's crystal clear, but somehow still retains colors that remind me of her. It calms me down. For now.

"Fair enough, stranger." I say to him. I pull out the audio log from the desk in Opaque. I press play.

"Green's log. I don't feel so good. Been having vomiting episodes lately. I think I'm gaining white. Must be some weird soide effects of moving down here. No turtle is meant to live underground, save for the Koopa King. And we've gone and followed him to the ends of the Earth, and then inside it. And I found a why for us ll to do it. No one will ever question my loyalty to service. That's why Green Enterprises will live on forever. Oh, oh man. *wretches* Oh man that's the third toim today. I'm heading to the Obsidian Sea now. I live in the area, and it really calms me down. That body o' water looks better than anything in the Mushroom Kingdom. One looks at it and is immediately beset boy serenity. I've watched countless friends die in countless wars over the years and unknowingly helped the Koopa King move us all underground, where we can see the loit from the magma, but never the loit of day. There's no why to tell when the sun goes up or down here in Obsidian because we can't see it. The sky is always this perpetual sunset. But here, at the Obsidian Sea, none of that matters. It mikes everything ok. The sea reflects a nicer yellow and brownish hue. Next to the Obsidian Sea, the dire orange sky, just looks loik a perpetual sunroys."

"Sounds like a troubled soul." The toad chuckles as he begins to carry his tune again.

 _Will you come?_

 _to the Fountain Free_

 _Will You come?_

 _Tis for You and Me_

 _Thirsty Soul_

 _Hear the welcome call_

 _Tis a fountain opened for all_

The boat begins to rock and a huge wave starts making its way to consume us. The toad looks unbothered. He continues to row aimlessly, singing, smiling.

"Hey geezer, don't you see that shit!" I stood up in the boat and braced for impact. The wave quickly floated us to it's peak. The boat capsizes and flips us off. The boat follows my trajectory, as I turn in the air, the bow crashes against my forehead. When I land, the water immediately around me is riddled with blood. As I struggle to stay conscious, I see a large shadow raising up. I cant make it out through the blood in my eyes. I can only see red and shadows. But I can still hear the Toad, singing.

To be continued


	7. Chapter 7: Instruments of Karma

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Nintendo/Super Mario Universe characters mentioned below. They are property of the aforementioned and their appropriate affiliates. Please support the official games and merchandise.

He just kept singing. He wouldn't stop singing. Or maybe I just kept hearing him sing. After what I've been through, there's sure to be an untreated concussion or two. I do find my ears ringing occasionally. Sometimes it rings with the words of my brother. More often than not, it rings with the same high-pitched squeal I first heard after my wife died. Hell, compared to those sounds, the echo of a fisherman who just won't stop singing is a fucking relief. Something was rising from the water and I was losing blood just floating there. I've blacked out too many times. Not just today, in my life. So much so that I feel it coming again. Fuck it. I always wake back up. I'll wake up this time, won't I?

 **Flashback. February 2016. It is during the Mushroom Kingdom's decline, before Luigi would cut contact with Mario and the royal family. Luigi does battle with the Axem rangers in their Warehouse on the East side of the Mushroom Kingdom. The Warehouse is dimlit as the five Axem Rangers search behind each cargo crate for the hiding Luigi, hoping to find him before he gets the drop on any of them. Luigi's earpiece used to communicate with E. Gadd vibrates slightly as the scientist attempts to communicate wit Luigi during his job.**

"Luigi, you there? Listen I've got some warnings for you about those Axem Rangers." Elvin shouts like the earpiece isn't in my actual ear.

"Bit late for that Elvin." I said in response.

"WAY TOO LATE!" Axem Yellow says as I look up at him driving his ax toward my crouched position. I caught the blade before it hit my face and stood up opposing his strength. "I'VE GOT HIM!" He said as his team leaped in the air with their axes preparing to cut me down.

"Hah!" I shouted as I swung the weight of the ax, sending Axem Yellow upward toward his teammates. His bulky body throws them off their trajectory. I run clear of their predicted landing points. Axem Green avoids the air collisions and is falling toward me. I roll behind him at the last second and snatch his feet from beneath him, causing him to smash his head on the concrete floor. If he wasn't dead, he certainly wouldn't be moving anymore. As I finish with him, I hear footsteps running up behind me. When I turn around, I have to immediately dodge an incoming Axem Pink. She lands next to Axem Green's body.

"Don't worry partner, I'll fix your face!" She says to him.

"The hell you will!" I say as I pick Axem Yellow's axe up off the ground and charge at her. She blocks my chop by holding her ax sideways. I'm stronger than her so I begin pushing her into the ground. I can hear a strange sizzling behind me. When I turn my head to look, a score of bombs is heading my direction, fuses short. I planted both feet into Axem Pink's stomach and kicked off her to propel myself in to the air. The bombs landed on top of Pink and Green and exploded. I back-flipped toward Axem Black and charged at him with the ax. As I'm about to lay my finishing slice, I'm forced to draw back when Axem Red comes to his rescue and attempts a swipe at me. Before I know it, I'm dodging ax swipes left and right and using the stolen ax to block when I can. Thinking quickly, I pull out my hammer to dual-wield with the ax. When Axem Black swipes at me, it clangs against my ax. Axem Red takes a swifter swipe at me. I sidestep it and smash it with my hammer. The ax warps at the hard materiel it meets. The impact snatches it from Axem Red's hands. I reverse the hammer's direction and knock him clear of the fight. Axem Black then goes all out in a furry of swinging ax attacks. I block them all with my two weapons but he isn't leaving me an opening. I jump back, turn tail and flee for the moment. He pursues me heavily. I run through the space with high stacks of heavy duty cargo before having an ah-ha moment. I can tell Axem Black is gaining on me. When I feel him get too close for comfort, I blindy toss the ax backwards. I immediately stop feeling the wind of his chase. I turn around to see the ax sticking out of his head. At that precise moment a giant wooden cargo crate falls on top of me. It breaks as it hits me and the ground, but that just made it hurt more. I was flattened onto my back. Before I can open my eyes, Axem Red lands feet first onto my stomach, drawing blood from my mouth. It disappeared onto his clothes.

"Why the hell did you even come here, Luigi? We got no problem with y-"

 _CRASH!_ Elvin and his chopper come crashing through the wall right next to us. Axem Red is forcibly bulldozed onto the artillery cannon of it.

"Looks like I'm right on time." Elvin says into my earpiece as he fires a missile. Because of his stuck position, Axem Red takes a ride on the rocket, through the other wall of the warehouse and onto the rocket's certain doom that would surely become his own. The chopper circles back around as I struggle to my feet. When it gets in range, I hop on as Elvin carries us clear of harms way. "D- . . . Did you just kill all of the Axem Rangers?" Elvin asked nervously.

"Well I just had an industrial storage crate dropped on me, but I think I'll heal, thanks for asking Elvin." I replied, a bit annoyed.

"Luigi" he said more sternly "did you just kill all the Axem Rangers?"

"Well if you wanna get technical, no. You just killed one. And he's the leader so-"

"Luigi I'm not sure we need to still be doing this."

"What, making a living?"

"Luigi, take this serious for one second will ya? If I hadn't shown up when I did, that Axem Ranger would have properly hacked your head clean off! And for what? Some payday?"

"Gadd, it's the Axem Rangers and we're in the middle of Civil War."

"But this wasn't a royal order to come here. We're essentially just mercenaries."

"No Gadd. I'm a mercenary, you're just helping out a friend. Now if you really don't want any of the guilt, you don't have to take any of the pay either." He fell silent. "Thought so. A significant power from across town claimed the Axem Rangers were stealing resources and hording them and they needed them to be stopped.

"Well I . . . guess that explains the warehouse."

"Exactly. Look Elvin I don't ever want you to think that we're the bad guys."

"But it doesn't feel like we're good guys either."

"Real life isn't always as simple as bad guys and good guys. If our will wasn't meant to be done, then you and I wouldn't have the one hundred percent success rate we do as a team. One hundred percent, Gadd. You know what that means?" He thought hard on it. He's a genius so I know it bothered him that he didn't know the answer. I eased his anxiety with the answer. "A one hundred percent success rate means that, regardless of what's good and what's bad, _we're_ instruments of Karma. And Karma can't be stopped."

"But Luigi, so many close calls. And they've been even closer since, ya know . . ." He was afraid to finish that sentence. "All the times we've had to literally and figuratively yank each other out of the path of the Grim Reaper."

"Historically and statistically speaking, we're fine. You've always got what it takes to get us ready. But whenever it gets to the trenches of real life, I need youto know that I've got what it takes to keep us alive."

 **End of Flashback.**

I was right. I always wake up. I could feel myself, waking up. But I couldn't open my eyes. Could just barely move. But I definitely couldn't open my eyes. Or rather, something instinctual was telling me not to. I steadied my heartbeat as I tried to regain control of my muscles. There's no telling where I am or how long I've been out. I remembered I was on the verge of drowning. That's it. I must have still been submerged. I tried to swim upward and felt my feet hit the floor. But it wasn't the ocean floor. I extended my arms and my hands hit an actual glass ceiling. I reached for my mouth and there was an oxygen tank hooked up to it. I checked to see if I was still clothed. I was. Not sure if that's a good sign. I was about to bust my way out when I heard a voice. It had a static sound to it. But it wasn't submerged like me. It was a familiar voice.

"Green's log. They don't recognize me anymore. Insoid or out. They say I've changed. Aye, but is a man to sty the same why for his whole loif? The same people who use my product every day are the ones claiming that Lieutenant Green is no longer one of the people. Sure King Koopa's the head of Obsidian. But these fuckers act loik I'm not the damn backbone! No matter. I don't do this for their approval. I do this because any member of the Koopa Troopa is loyal above all, and of service above all else! It was from King Koopa that Obsidian was born! But it's because of Green Enterprises that Obsidian lives!" The static ended with his voice. He sounded dreary and upset. I took it as my signal to get the hell out of where ever I was. I braved whatever environment I was in and opened my eyes. The substance, whatever it was, did not burn my eyes. I scouted my surroundings. I appeared to be in some sort of control station. I looked up to the ceiling. There was an inscription that looked to be crossed out in blood. Or possibly just red paint. It could honestly go either way at this point. The inscription read 'For Green of Green Enterprises'. The writing beneath the cross-out simply read 'Monster'. I looked around some more. There was red writing everywhere. One spot read 'Go away'. I heard the static voice again.

"Green's log. It was me who put togetha the initial plans for the Obsidian sewers. Well sure we can all technically survoiv in magma due to what King Koopa, and unknowingly I, did to everyone's genes. But only the native magma dwellers like King Koopa have the eyes to see through the molten mess. The rest of us, without the dome to clear out all the liquid fire, would just be bloindly swimmin our why through the magma. But for the rest of us, the dome keeps us clean, and the sewers divert the magma. Now I once spent a full week down there training the sewer workers. Didn't get a lick of sleep. And when I come up, me woif and kids do a double-tyke. Like they've seen a ghost or somethin. This is a dream job, but it's cuttin into me family time something fierce." I continued looking about the station. The setup was starting to look more familiar. It looked more like a submarine. I saw more red writing that read 'Obsidian's Greatest Mistake.' I heard the static covered voice again. He sounds tired and sinister.

"Green's log. My superior, he always wanted to tyke everything for himself. Now he wants me loif. And it looks loik he might succeed. Ungrateful son of a bitch! No regod for all my work to the Koopa Krown. I've lost all me friends and family here in Obsidian. Things have changed so much they don't recognize me anymore. Hell, they don't even call me Green anymore. Maybe I've changed so much they don't know it's me. Maybe I've done so much I don't deserve that nime. He can strip me of me rank. But after all I've been through, I'm stronger than the word Lieutenant now. What the . . . Oh no. It's only a matter of time before I'm overtaken now. Whoever foinds these, please, try to only remember the good." That was about as much as I could take. I started punching the glass as hard as I could. Barely a scratch. I took a risk and charged up a thunderbolt and smacked it against the glass. It shattered. I crawled out. My clothes didn't hold any of the water. In fact, they were back to my usual blue and green attire. I stood up to examine myself. I heard a windy sound and immediately crouched clear of a flying object. It soared above me. I turned around to see what it was. It was a bulky spiked shell. It bounced off the wall and hit me square in the face. I flew across the room. Blood poured from my nose with no viscosity. I kipped back up. I couldn't stay down so early in a fight. I saw the shell coming my way again. I back-flip kicked it away. I watched as it quickly recovered in the air. Then limbs and a head came out of it. It was clearly too small to be Bowser, but in the midst of the flipping, it looked similar. Then the offender landed and I saw the face plain as day. I'll admit, it surprised me.

"Bowser Junior?" I said in shock. He gave me a sadistic look before shooting out flames from his mouth. I leaped clear. He went into his shell as it spun and charged my way. As I prepared to intercept him, he did something I had never seen any koopa do before. The shell jerked and bounced directly into the air as he closed in. I had to duck. As he flew over me, he stuck out his hands and took me upward with him. With control of my body, he flipped several times in the air before slamming me with a sit-out powerbomb. I felt the wind leave me. I rolled over in pain. He simply stood up and watched me. "Wh-what. The fuck have you been eating, koopa steriods? I _killed_ you. I felt your heart stop! How! How are you still alive?" I asked crawling away. He stepped on my spine. "Ah!" I winced in pain as I blindly shot a fireball backwards. I felt his foot leave my back and rolled over and kipped up. He was waiting. I dodged a punch as I landed. He clawed for my neck and I ducked under it. I lit my fist aflame as I prepared to uppercut him. "Hah!" I shouted as I leaped skyward. He sidestepped me and grabbed my foot. "Oh no!" I said as he slammed me back into the ground. Guess my same trick won't work twice. He grabbed me by the back of the neck and started dragging me across the floor. I looked up to see him dragging me toward a small cell fit for a pet. I begin to charge a thunderbolt in my hand. As he opens the cell to put me in, I turn on him and shoot the bolt his way. His head goes into his shell and my bolt destroys the sealed hatch behind him. Water starts flooding the sub. His head pops back out as he leaps backward from me. I struggled to my feet and hawked him down. I grab a spike on his shell as he swims out into the ocean. He's more built for the deep sea than I thought. He swims faster than a motor boat as I struggle to hold on. He attempts to kick me off of him. I latch on to another spike on his shell. His speed picks up. I stay my grip. It seemed like he was swimming forever. However long it took, he came to a sudden stop. I didn't stop with him and flew on ahead of him in the water. My grip is not strong enough to keep me near him, but I manage to tear off a spike from his shell. I can faintly hear him scream even in these depths. As I turn and tumble I can see a deep-sea cave ahead. There are two entrances. My body flies into the one on the left. Once in the cave, I felt something pulling the water down. Like a whirlpool. I continued holding my breath as I was sucked into it. It was getting hard to hold my breath. I needed to take my mind off this moment. I thought about my brother. The raged re-pumped my lungs. I thought about how much I wanted him dead. How I should have killed him when I had the chance. How I failed to kill him when I got another chance. I thought about how much more he was probably worth alive than dead. I negotiated in my head on if I should kill him or turn him over to the royals. That was a tough choice. I toyed with that one for what felt like forever. I drifted away in that thought.

When I found myself, I was washed up where I could see the skies were blue again. It was a relief. Turns out I still missed the skies as they were. I took a good look at the skies as they unblurred. They were actually too blue. * **Smack** *I was clubbed on the shoulder and yanked from the water. I was thrown on a tile floor. I must have been indoors. I looked up to see my attacker. He spoke to me with the most reverence I've heard in a voice since I began this adventure.

"I bet you've got questions?" The voice was deep and distinguished. And familiar. The last drops of water cleared from my vision and I saw him clearly.

"Toadsworth?" I said.

"The very same." He said as he turned his blind eye to me. In the bright lights of the room, his blind eye, with its missing hues, shined and glistened even more so than the good one. And he still pointed it at me. There's no way it could see me. It was more than turning a blind eye to me. He just pointed the grimmest part of his face toward me. The side of him that looked the most war-torn. "Unchained, unchanged, unsurprised, all the wise. The Mushroom Kingdom's most trusted advisor and servant." I got to my feet quickly and carefully. I was still dangerously close to the pool I was fished out of. I quickly scouted out the room. It looked to be the same room that contained the world where my brother first discovered his metal-head transformation. I must have been snatched from that same black pool. The Obsidian City Docks lead to here? None of this is making sense. Toadsworth stood on the opposite side of the pool from me. He placed his cane directly in front of him.

"What's going on Toadsworth?" I asked. "How did you find me, how did I get here?"

"You have many questions, don't you?" He simply replied.

"Yeah. Can I expect you to know any answers or am I wasting my breath?" I asked.

"You could look to me, Luigi." He said. "As always I have many answers. But as always, its up to you and your ego to decide if you want to listen."

"I don't have time for you shit Toadsworth! Where did you find me and why am I here?"

"The princess' ceremony is today. And you have not given the royal family what it asks of you. You, the best known man of your profession. Now, the soon-to-be Queen will surely not have time to tend to your mediocrity over and over again. In becoming the Queen, there are certain matters the crown must prove to the public." I took a ready stance.

"What are you saying Toadsworth?"

"You should always keep track of your associates, Luigi." He said as a spotlight lit up the darkness near the stairs behind him. In the spotlight, on an elevated stretcher, lay Elvin Gadd. His face is bloody and bruised.

"Hey n-c-neighbor. Glad you could make it." He didn't appear strapped down. But he certainly couldn't get up. My fists lit aflame as I prepared to obliterate Toadsworth.

"I wouldn't, if I were you." Toadsworth said as two muscled Mushroom Kingdom guards approached Elvin and held him down. The one on his right side drew a large sword. "One move and there's no way he'll escape in one piece, Luigi."

"What is all this, Toadsworth? Are you royals getting impatient? You think saving your kingdom just falls out the damn sky? Because it doesn't! Now let the nerd go and give me some time to do my fucking job!" I said furiously.

"I'm not a patient man, Luigi." Toadsworth said. "Do you remember this black pool between us? It was at one point cursed to take the swimmer to an underground world plagued with disgusting creatures. Now, you must have gone severely off course to end up here. But, it's just as well. It gives us chance to catch up." He raised one hand hand snapped his fingers. The ground beneath gave a bit and cemented my feet into the tile. For the moment I couldn't move.

"What the hell?"

"Don't worry, it's just to make sure you pay attention. The Kingdom is losing precious resources for every moment you haven't brought your brother to us, Luigi. You've felt loss. Not the least of which was your wife. But let's say you lost ten wives. Or a thousand. Or a million. Let's say there was a mad man taking thousands of wives from you everyday. Leaving thousands of your children dead or slain in the streets. Let's say you had an insurance policy made to protect you from the mad man, and it failed you, miserably. Luigi, your loss is nothing compared to the losses the Mushroom Kingdom faces everyday. The one life you lost a year ago, is nothing compared to the countless ones Mario has taken. The wartime dollars spent. The businesses that cease to exist."

"Nothing?" I snapped. "You think my wife's death is nothing?" I struggled frantically to get out of the tile. But it wouldn't budge. He still spoke to me as I struggled to pull myself free.

"But when you did feel that loss, that one paltry loss, you became unstoppable. You became the most productive. You became the greatest resource in the Kingdom, if only for a moment. But even that fire is dying inside you."

"Free me, and I'll show you the fire is still alive and well." I said.

"Don't kid yourself kid." Toadsworth said. "You ain't got the balls to kill Mario. Not because you're afraid, but because a man like you is running out of loved ones. You kill him, you lose your brother. You bring him to us, we're likely to kill him anyway."

"Fuck do you even know about having a brother, Toadsworth?" I started shooting lighting near my feet to get free.

"So how then, how do we motivate you to do your _fucking_ job? We find something else. Something else that can motivate you. Someone besides Mario that you're still close to. People you love can still be hurt, Luigi." He pointed to the guards holding down Elvin. With one swift chop, the guard sliced Elvin's arm clean off.

"GAAAHHHHH!" He shouted in agony. "GAAAAHHHHH! OH GOD! LUIGI, HELP ME!" He cried at the top of his lungs, as if my fists of flame could smelt his arm back to his body. In my anger, I yanked my left foot from the tile. I planted my free foot and hands as I tried to escape.

"I'll kill you, Toadsworth!" I said as I struggled. "Anything he feels now, you'll get ten times over. You hear me? What the fuck is your problem? I wanna talk to the princess!"

"Is my charming face not enough?" Toadsworth smirked on his scarred side.

"I never liked you Toadsworth. And you never like me. So what the hell makes now any different?" I could feel the tile move a bit.

"Hm." Toadsworth said. "Now, if you came here from Obsidian, that means you took a wrong turn down the deep sea cave. So I suggest you try that trip again. Once you have enough questions, enough loss. That's how we get the motivation. By making more loss. More questions."

"How'd you know about Obsidian?" I asked, still struggling, looking down at my trapped foot.

"Are your sure that's what you want to know?" Toadsworth asked, rather sarcastically. I looked up when I heard footsteps. They were light in nature. But heavy in sound. Then I saw her. I lost my mind, and my wind when I looked her in the eyes. I could barely whisper her name.

"Daisy?"

 _To be continued_


	8. Chapter 8: Elvin's Child

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Nintendo/Super Mario Universe characters mentioned below. They are property of the aforementioned and their appropriate affiliates. Please support the official games and merchandise. Sorry for the long hiatus. Go on an refresh yourself on the first 7 chapters if need be.

She was just as I remembered her. Elegant. Brilliant. Effortlessly super-imposing on my will. My wife. She bent to Toadsworth's level, took his head in her palm and kissed him.

"You idiot!" Toadsworth responded to the kiss as he struck her to the ground with his cane. That snapped me out of my weakness. I snatched my trapped my foot from the tile and leaped across the black pool toward Toadsworth and Daisy. I felt a sharp excruciating pain when my foot left the ground. I heard a deep grunt when I hit my apex.

"Shit." I said as a thwomp smashed into me and drove me downward into the black pool. It didn't let up when we broke the surface. It drove me deep, deep into the waters. I never realized how fast a thwomp fell. The velocity kept me from passing out. Everything was a blur of darkness. Fast-moving darkness. After while, the weight of the thwomp let up. The direction of the current shifted drastically. I was being pulled elsewhere. I hit a wall as I was being pulled by the current. Then another. Another. Like getting sucked down a drain filled with rocks. I took myself to an imaginary place. Where Daisy holds Lynus while watching Netflix, I'm outside landscaping, Elvin is in his own house, and my brother is dead. My happy place. The more I described it to myself in my head, the more time passed by.

When I opened my eyes, I was washed up near the suburban hilltops of the Kingdom. It's dark out. It's raining. I'm, bleeding. My brother is, where ever Bowser is. Bowser is, God knows where. Elvin is, probably, possibly dead by now. Peach is, being crowned. Toadsworth is, more dangerous than I thought. I'm possibly going to be eaten by vultures if I lay here too long. And my wife is still dead.

Wait. Wait no. I saw her. But she can't be. But I saw her. I saw her alive. I saw her alive and well just as I saw her dead. Just as well as I remember her dead. The way the spike pierced her. Turned her yellow dress a dire orange with bloodstains. How? How is it possible that I saw her? I took this woman's body from the wreckage myself. I cleaned the wounds. I buried her myself. I made sure the Mushroom Kingdom had nothing to do with her funeral. Or her burial. Those were my undertakings.

Her burial.

Her burial.

That's it! I rolled over to get up. I forgot I was in the river shore.

"*cough, cough*" I spit up water. I can see the rain washing my blood into the river. I tried to stand up. My right leg-the one I felt the sharp pain in when I tried to kill Toadsworth-I couldn't stand on it. Any pressure at all-my body wasn't having it. So I limped away from the river. I slipped and fell again. The rain is making these grasslands almost without friction. I struggle back to my good leg and press on.

I press on. I carry onward. For what must have been an hour so, I made my way in the direction of my house. As I walk across the flatter part of the plains, it begins to thunder. I saw lightning strike not a full one hundred yards away from me. I pause momentarily. It didn't surprise me. I can almost feel when lightning is about to strike. I can harness the power of thunder. But I've never been struck by it-not from the sky. I don't imagine it could kill me. But I'm not trying to find out.

But then I press on, because that's the direction my neighborhood is in. I continue for maybe ten more minutes as the thunder continues to strike near me. I see a tree in the distance. I stop and rest on it as I pass by. I needed a brief shelter from the rain. I leaned against the tree and slowly slid down into a resting position. I sighed. Then I felt the roots move. I looked down. The grass beneath the roots was giving way. It's rather dark but I can sort of make out spots. Then I felt myself quickly rising into the air.

"Oh shit!" I said as the creature began to rise from the ground. Whatever it was, I could see and feel that it was huge. Nearly the size of Peach's castle. Lightning lit up the sky and I could see the creature was big, red, with white spots. "A giant piranha plant? The hell?" This was definitely the biggest one I'd ever seen.

"RAAAAHHHHH! ROP ROP!" It yelled with an earth-shaking voice and chomped about. Its movement threw me off balance. I fell and rolled until I hit the tree attached to its head. Suddenly, it bucked me skyward. As I flew upward, I could see it open its mouth to eat me when I landed. Suddenly, I felt a strange tick.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" I screamed as I turned around and caught the lightning strike that was heading for me. I charged it, turned around and used it on my predator. The result was more electric than any bolt I'd ever produced alone. The giant's body lit up like an angry Christmas tree.

"SCHLEEEEHHH! GAAAAHK!" I heard it actually scream in pain before it stiffened and gave up its life. When I landed on it, it teetered and came crashing down. At it's impact, I bounced off of it and landed a few dozen yards away. I could just barely stand. Still only had one good leg. I took a good look at the giant corpse that lay before me. I turned my back to it and screamed.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" I let it out in the most primal, stressful way possible. "AAAAAAAHHHHH!" I don't imagine I'm sane enough to have a breaking point. But whatever I have, this was it. The impromptu fight with the largest piranha plant I've ever seen did it. I screamed and carried along until I was closing in on my neighborhood. I ceased screaming when I could see my house just over a hill. I stopped and look for a tree to my right near a rock. I found it. I ran to the tree and stepped three paces left. I dropped down to all fours and felt around the grass in the area. I stopped when I felt something different. I grabbed the fake grass and snatched it from the ground. Then I spawned a firball to help me see. There I saw it. It was just as I had left it. Hidden. Daisy's gravestone. I left it seemingly unmarked and hidden beneath a small piece of lawn just in case, I don't know, anything.

"AHHHH!" I yelled again as I began ferociously digging with my hands. I had no shovel after all. "AAAAAHHH!" Why had it come to this? Why was I digging up my wife's grave? I saw her with my own two eyes next to Toadsworth. But this grave site was just as I left it. Untouched. I just had to know the truth. Was Daisy really still alive?

So I dug. I dug as fast any man could to get six feet under with his own two hands. I stopped when I had completely uncovered her coffin. And a small space around it. I took a deep breath as I opened the coffin. "Oh. Oh no. Oh, oh no no no." I saw the sight of my wife's decomposed body. There was no more of her beautiful skin. There was a darkened skeleton with worms and bugs crawling about her. I jumped out of the grave and vomited an amount I hadn't even eaten. And when I had no more food to vomit, out came blood. Every ounce of blood that came out hurt me. A lot. I coughed the last of it out and rolled over on my back. I hyperventilated as I lay there, staring at the dark sky. The rain beat against my unflinching face.

Why? Why did they trick me? Why did they make me put myself through this? Why did they make me look at my wife's rotting corpse? I don't know who that was next to Toadsworth. But one thing's for damn sure. It wasn't Daisy.

I stayed down as I collected my thoughts. Too much has happened for this to be the end. For me to let this go. For me to give up. I never found Bowser in Obsidian. Only his son. The one member of the Koopa Kingdom I wasn't expecting to see. Did Bowser Jr. take over the city? And why the hell do I keep hearing about this Green guy?

I've got to keep my eye on the ball. I have to find Mario. I can do that by tailing the Koopa King. But where do I find the damn Koopa King? Damn it! This kind of stuff is supposed to be Elvin's job! Ok. Calm down. Think. The Koopa King would only be in one of two places at this point. Obsidian, or . . . No. I have to hurry back to the Kingdom. If Bowser is already there, then it won't take me long to find Mario. If he's not there, then he's still in Obsidian. And I know how to get back.

I stood up and made my way home. It was nearing dawn when I got in front of my house. I thought for a second, then turned and went inside of Elvin's house. The door was unlocked. Now that I knew what I was up against, I needed to be as equipped as possible. Since the War, power-ups for me or my brother are hard to manufacture or come by. Whatever Elvin has left is my best shot. I walked through his house and made my way to his garage. I collected a health shroom I saw lying on the dining room table. Highly experimental. Highly painful to use. But I consumed it anyway. After falling on the ground and writhing in pain for a while, I got up and continued scouting. I continued toward the garage. I heard crying as I got closer to it. It sounded like. It couldn't be.

"A baby?" I ran and kicked down the door and saw a small potted piranha plant. It appeared to be still maturing. It was bent over away from me and crying. There was only one high desk lamp shining on it. Was it afraid of the light? It needs it after all. As I got closer to it, it didn't make any effort to bite me. There are a bunch of videotapes stacked next to the creature. The TV is on the other side of him. I put the first tape in to see if anything was up. It displayed Elvin in front of the camera.

"Log #1 on the famed Piranha Plant. I found this little creature by its lonesome in a storm last month. Ok, that's not the whole truth. I was out conducting research on the creatures during a storm. The plains near my house have a Piranha Plant field that's seen some real bad storm and rains. Ordinarily, most plants thrive in such environments. In fact, it's safe to say, the Piranha Plant can live just about anywhere. But the ones in that field near my house, they're doomed to a miserable existence. Suppose that's how I found this little one, its roots not even anchored strong enough to keep it down. I found it lying on the ground coughing." That was the end of that tape. I took a look at the creature. It no longer cried but focused it's attention on me. But it didn't appear hostile. But after what I just faced, how could I be sure. It'd be dead already if this weren't Elvin's house. I put the next tape in to find out more.

"Log #2 on the famed Piranha Plant. Elliot. That's what I've taken to calling it. I owe it a name. An identity. I owe it everything since it's kinda my fault it's mother is dead. I hope these things don't have memories because I do. In a way, you could say I saved the creature from growing up to live a short life like its neighbors. You see, many of its kind grow up in odd places. Deserts, pipelines. You'd think it would thrive in an open field then. That's the problem. It does. It grows. In a storm-plagued open field, the Piranha Plant grows to ginormous proportions from all the water and nutrients. But storms bring thunder. Thunder, strikes the thing that's highest in the sky. And a Piranha plant that spends half its life in the rain, gets pretty high in the sky. These behemoths then are often kings of their environments what with their massive size. But the two things they can't control are the weather, and their own growth-spurts. During the storm, these giants often stay hidden below ground. If they surface, it's too big a risk.

I was out near the field with my remote-controlled drone attempting to draw them out. I wanted to see their behavior in the storm. I managed to draw out many normal-sized ones and even a few slightly bigger ones. But I wanted the giants. And so I kept flying it about. Landing it when the lightning got heavy and driving it on the field. Then I felt the ground shake. I got so happy when I felt it I . . . I'm a fucking monster. It didn't take long for the lightning to strike Elliot's mom when she rose up and uncoiled to scare away the danger. It was a horrific spectacle all the way up until the beast fell to the ground. I smiled in astonishment. I, I fucking smiled. But then in my drone camera, I saw Elliot, a third of the size he is now, just lying near its mom. It must not have been out of the egg long. It wasn't even rooted. I used my drone to pick it up and bring it back to the garage.

I potted it so that it wouldn't die. I altered its genes so that it could sustain itself on just the soil in the pot and sunlight. The gene-altering hurt Elliot. A lot. But I had to do it, or it would die. I owe Elliot the best for what I did. So I can't stop there. Elliot is growing too fast. There's no doubt it has the same gigantic genes as its mother. I can't keep it potted or even in my house forever. One day it will be just as big. Just as strong. Same ability. . . . No weakness." That was the end of that video. This is really starting to freak me out. This is a side of Elvin I haven't seen before. I mean, this guy killed Axem Red. But the guilt he feels is over an overgrown weed? I put in the next tape.

"Log #3. I've done it. It pained me to hear the screams but Elliot will thank me later. With my alterations of Elliot's genome, it is now immune to lightning. Now when it is set free, it won't face the doom that became its elder. Plus the alterations gave it an unexpected upgrade as well. I think I've fully atoned for my mistake. And heck, in a way, I guess I have a daughter now." That was the end of that one. I got curious. I looked at the little plant predator. I raised my finger and shot it with a good number of volts. It jiggled a little but didn't die. But it did appear irritated. It opened its mouth slowly to bare its teeth. But unlike any I'd seen, it then spawned a small lightning bolt in it's mouth. If it saw me as a serious threat, it might have done more. Wait. Daughter? Elvin calls it his-wait Elvin!

"Elvin!" I said aloud as I rushed to my house, splinted my leg as best I could and hit the driveway. I got in the car. I paused. I hopped out of the car and ran back to Elvin's garage. I took the potted piranha plant, a few old power-ups, a hammer and ran back to my car. I put Elliot in the passenger seat and buckled it up. I buckled and backed out. I sped my way to the kingdom. I would go the Kingdom and sweep it for Mario's presence. If I don't find him there, he's still in Obsidian.

I don't have time to worry about Toadsworth as long as I know my wife is still in the ground. And I can't leave Elliot in or near my neighborhood. It might die when they come for me. I went over this checklist in my head over and over.

Before I knew it I was closing in on the Kingdom walls. I was surprised I was making it there undisturbed. Then out of the woods stumbled that same stuttering toad. I couldn't hear him but I could see him shouting for help. I sped up and aimed the car at him. He perked up and scurried back to the woods before I could hit him. I leaped from the window of the car as it was driving to hawk him down. I caught up to him and lifted him by the head. His feet continued in a running motion.

"Do what I say and I won't kill you, understand?" I said to him.

"G-g-g-g-go to hell Luigi.'' I gave his head a tiny volt of electricity. "Gah! Okay, okay!" I dragged him and threw him into the car. I hopped in the back seat and gave him instruction. When we rolled up to the Mushroom Kingdom doors, he was in the driver seat. The guards grilled him. If he wasn't ready, I was gonna kill em all.

"We need to search your car, sir." The guard said.

"Wh-wh-what for?" The stutterer replied.

"We got a wanted criminal here in the Kingdom. We gotta make sure he's not sneaking in through your vehicle. Unlock your doors." He did, idiot. Toadsworth must be looking for me. One of the two guards opened the passenger door. He shouted to his partner immediately/

"We got contraband! Illegal vegetation."

"It ain't mine I sssssswea!" The stuttering thief shouted before bolting out of the driver door. The guard catches him and slings him back into the car.

"We'll cut you loose you tell us who you're smuggling for! Speak now!"

"I c-c-c-can't. He'll fucking k-k-kill me!" He's right, I will.

"Radio in the black-light troops. We gotta tow this thing in and get it searched. You check the trunk, I'll check the backseat." My operation is looking like a bust when Elliot zaps one of the guards in the face. The victim falls unconscious. His partner walks around the car to confront Elliot carefully, as if he were a snake. By the time he gets in view of his partner's downed body, I am standing over it. I've taken his spear and am pointing it at his neck. "Luigi?" He says in surprise.

"In the fucking flesh." I reply. "Now authorize the guard to open the gates to the Kingdom or I put this spear through his throat."

"Easy." He says, reaching to his radio. "Open the gate!"

"Good." I say. "I'm taking your partner with me. Tell your boys he went to take a piss or something. If I suspect I'm being followed, I will kill him." I stuff myself, the stuttering toad, and the guard into the car.

"Understood." The conscious guard replies. Once I'm in the car, the doors open and the toad drives us through. I hide in the backseat. The car rolls on down main street.

"So where are we g-g-g-goin?"

"I don't know!" I answered. "Somewhere that'll give me good starting point on where to find Mario. Just drive around and look for red-shelled koopas or hookers or something." It doesn't take long for him to come to a road closed sign. A mushroom guard directs the car to a detour to the right. "Why is he making us turn?" I ask.

"Must be for the princess' ceremony. She'll be Queen after today. They have to take us around the parade and festivity traffic." He explains as another guard directs us left. "I-is this plant in the passenger seat gonna kill me?"

"Not unless you give it a reason." I answer as the detour takes us down the back roads.

"So why do you have that th-thing?" He asks. I can hear him clearly as the detour takes us down a quieter road.

"It belonged to a friend. I'm just watching it until I find a good place for it. Until it can fend for itself." We go under an overpass and it gets dark. The ground beneath the car gives way and we plummet into thicker darkness. I don't know how far the car fell. Far enough for the air bags to deploy. Far enough for me to bust out of the back windshield. I landed just behind my car. Glass all around me.

I wanted to give up in that very moment. This was getting to be too much. It was starting to catch up to me. But there was no time for that. I rolled over and tried to push myself up. The stuttering toad lifts me from the ground and begins to help me walk.

"Y-y-y-you okay?"

"I'll live. Where the hell are we?" I asked.

"Somewhere dark."

"Where are we going?"

"We're going somewhere where it ain't so dark. Don't w-w-worry, I'll g-get us out of here." Why is he so composed? "Was it ssssscary?" He asked me.

"What?"

"Oh, Oh, Obsidian. I haven't actually been before."

"How, do you know, about Obs-" THWOOM! He dropped me on my face. I rolled over quickly. But couldn't quite get up. "What the *cough cough* the hell." It was so dark I could barely sense what was happening.

"You can't blame him for being curious." I heard a voice say.

"Toadsworth!" I shouted in the dark. "Where are you?"

"No need for the excitement. I have all we need here." He says. At the moment, I hear a mechanical whirring as the stuttering toad and I start to elevate.

"D-d-d-d-d-don't roll. You'll fall off the platform."

"Calm yourself, Luigi." I hear Toadsworth say. "Now look at the image I'm going to project to the wall." I see a picture pop up on the wall. "Do you remember this day?" It was the picture Mario showed me back at the compound. Me slaughtering a group of well-dressed toads. Blood and fire and tuxedos and dresses. Me holding the innocent by the face. How, how did he get this picture? "My sister was to be married that day. The union of her and her husband was a small glimmer of light in the darkness that was-and is-the Mushroom Kingdom. I don't know why you did it. I assume someone with more money than we paid you to break up the wedding without using the words 'I object.' Some of us tried to stop you. Most of us tried to run for our lives. But you were indiscriminant. There were children there you killed. I know we all look the same to you. Many of us are particularly short for our age. But there were children. Elderly-like myself. Pregnant women. Men with families. _Infants!_ But the famous Luigi doesn't discriminate. No. Not over his precious paycheck."

"That's it!" I struggled to my feet. "I've heard enough."

"No! YOU, HAVE HEARD NOTHING! YOU, WILL, LISTEN!" A spotlight appears that reveals Toadsworth and Daisy standing side by side. Daisy's dress appears tattered. Her face appears bruised.

"You have my attention." I say calmly.

"So calm." Toadsworth says. "As if you know something." I knew that the woman next to him wasn't Daisy. It just couldn't be. "I want you to look very carefully at the picture Luigi." I looked at it. He zoomed in to the corner of the picture. Though slightly unfocused, I could see what he wanted me to see. It was Toadsworth in the picture. Knocked off his cane. Sprawled out on the ground, reaching toward me as I lay the finishing blows to his loved ones. His monocle is missing, but his face is not yet half scarred. "An incident like this can scar you. Leave you psychologically damaged. It's tough to lose a loved one, isn't it?" He looks at Daisy, then back to the picture. "Losing a wife can leave you with an insatiable blood-lust. Losing a mother can drive a man to stutter. Just ask my nephew Lawrence." He pointed behind me. I turned to the stuttering toad behind me.

"F-f-f-fucker." POW. He socked me in the face. I stumbled and turned back around.

"I'll kill you later." I said turning to Toadsworth. "So what's this Toadsworth? Revenge?"

"What do you take me for?" He responded. "Revenge was sending you on a journey to Mario's compound. Revenge was beating you and stuffing you down that tunnel to Obsidian. Revenge was having you flushed down into the aquifer. But none of that killed you."

"Wait." I said. "It was you. You knocked me into that tunnel and sent me to Obsidian. But why? Why put the magma-proof suit on me?"

"Simple." Toadsworth responded. "Mario and I had formed an alliance. For him, it was about getting his brother back. For me, it was about killing you both. I couldn't let Mario simply disappear down there without some insurance. I knew I had to make sure you followed him. Then something happened. Not only did you survive Obsidian. But Mario found his way back as well." When he said that, another spotlight lit up near them to show my brother, chained by his wrists and hanging. He was beaten and bloody. "Then he showed up here. I'll admit it was no easy job to subdue him. But in the end the royal guard overtook him. He was already so badly worn from his visit to Obsidian."

"G . . .go to hell." I hear Mario say softly.

"But how did he get here when I had so much trouble?" I asked. At that moment, another spotlight lights up to reveal Elvin in his hanging cage. Beneath his cage is a portal. A dark pigment prevents me from seeing what's on the other side.

"This fellow." Toadsworth answers. "An associate of mine helped me construct this shortcut from the Kingdom to Obsidian. But it had been faltering. Then we captured E. Gadd. And after he patched himself up, he was instrumental in helping us fix the shortcut." Patched him self up? I took a closer look at Elvin. He was avoiding eye contact with me, but I looked at his arms. One was now robotic, and appeared to be working just fine. But it was clearly robotic. "The cell we threw him in had a bunch of scrap parts. He tied off his wound and had a working limb in short order."

"Elvin!" I asked. "Are you alright?" No answer.

"And that just leaves you, Luigi." Toadsworth says.

"How were you able to know where I was?" I asked. "No matter what I've done, I deserve answers!"

"YOU DESERVE NOTHING, BUT THE OBLIVION I WILL BRING TO YOU!" Toadsworth shouts as I hear his nephew draw his dagger behind me.

"You think whatever he's got can kill me?" I asked.

"You think the people you see before you are the only members of the Mushroom army in this room? And are you one hundred percent sure the tattered woman next to me is not your wife?" He responds. I had no words. "Kneel." He says. Daisy obeys. Just then, a door opens and shoots light into the room.

"What's going on in here?!" Princess Peach shouts in question. She looks at Toadsworth, who ignores her. Daisy, however, turns to look Peach in the eye. "D-Daisy?" A look of terror overtakes Peach's face before she passes out.

"My associate was right." Toadsworth said. "All those kidnappings, all this war, and still no stomach on that one."

"Associate." We hear Mario say softly as his head hangs. "Associate. Associate!" He suddenly begins to scream.

"I should tell you, Luigi. You brother seems to have lost his mind."

"It's Bowser! Bowser is his associate, Luigi!" Mario begins to scream at the top of his lungs. "Toadsworth betrayed us both and he's working with Bowser!"

"I would take nothing he says at face value, Luigi. Wouldn't you agree, Daisy?" Toadsworth turns to her and asks. Her head hanging down, she simply says:

"Don't call me that name. But I must agree with you, Toadsworth." She looks up at me before she continues talking. Before she speaks again, she morphs into the old homeless toad I met in Obsidian. Her voice changes to his as well as he-or she?- continues talking. "After all, it's the face cards-" he morphs into the fisherman I met at the Obsidian City docks. "That can be the most deceptive. You might even say they work-" He morphs one more time, this time to his true form. "-Like Magic." Kamek.

"Kamek?" I said, surprised.

"Kamek!?" My brother shouted, just as surprised. "But I killed you. I killed you! Luigi, listen to me. Toadsworth didn't do this to me. He never could. I found the Koopa King. He's in Obsidian. He defeated me and when I woke up I was here. He and Toadsworth are partners, we need to kill them both!"

"Why is Bowser still your concern?!" I shout back at him. "Don't you see what's happening? Toadsworth can only manipulate us like this because of _your_ obsession!"

"It's _not_ obsession. He still wants this Kingdom, Luigi. The Koopa King will kill us all if we continue to leave our guards down!"

"But why does the Kingdom's safety continue to be _our_ problem? The crown wants _you_ dead. I was only called back so that we'd both die in Obsidian while I chased you! WE ARE NOT WANTED HERE, BROTHER!"

"Both of you cease." We hear the princess say. I turn to look at her. She has recovered and is walking toward us all. She veers off toward Mario. "Toadsworth, lower him."

"As you wish." Mario's chains begin to lower until his eye level is just above Peach's.

"Who captured him?" Peach asks.

"The Mushroom Kingdom's finest, your highness." Toadsworth answers.

"I see." She replies, not taking her eyes off Mario, who's head still hangs. "Look at me, Mario." There is a dead silence in the room for a moment before Mario lifts his head to look her in the eye. His eyes can just barely be seen beneath his cap. "Mario, are you alright?"

"After what he's done, you would-"

"Silence Toadsworth!" Peach says. "Mario, are you okay." My brother is silent for a mere two seconds before he swings forward and kisses the princess. She is visibly surprised. She smacks him across his face, swinging him back to his resting state. "Why did you kill my father?!"

"You think that was me? Still? After all this time? What reason would I have to _waste_ resources on your father's life?" Mario shouts back.

"Then who else would have done it?" She asks.

"Ask your most trusted servant!" He says. Peach pauses before asking.

"Toadsworth. Is what he says true?" She asks.

"Was it worth it, that I might call you Queen, your highness?" Toadsworth responds.

"But, but you were nearly killed by the attack as well."

"All part of the show my dear. Who would have believed me innocent if every victim died, and I escaped unscathed?"

"You, are insane." She says.

"No. Insane is allowing the Mario brothers to ravage your kingdom with no consequences. Allowing that man to steal your resources and own your peoples' fear. Allowing _that_ man to deliver vigilante justice. They have done more to our kingdom in this short time than Bowser could ever do on his own! Insane is the countless lives lost in a failed and overdone pursuit of the Koopa King. Thoughtlessness, is not executing the man responsible for murdering your servant's loved ones! I knew there was only one way to get you to at least attempt to do your damn job. But I should have known if I wanted something done-"

"ENOUGH!" Peach shouts. "You are charged, with, TREASON!"

"And you think the army will obey you over me?" Toadsworth says.

"Do not underestimate the most loyal of my guard!"

"You-wait, what is that?" Toadsworth stops as we all begin to hear a beeping sound. I look up at Elvin. His arm is flashing. Just then, his chopper crashes through the wall. The crash breaks him free from his cage and he begins falling. It breaks Mario from his chains. Mario, however, falls into the open portal to Obsidian. It closes behind him.

 _To be continued._


	9. Chapter 9: Loyalty

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Nintendo/Super Mario Universe characters mentioned below. They are property of the aforementioned and their appropriate affiliates. Please support the official games and merchandise.

"Seize him!" Toadsworth shouts amid the confusion of Elvin's chopper crashing in. I act fast and kick Toadsworth's nephew behind me. I leap down from the platform to get Elvin to safety. I ran toward where he landed. I was surprised to find him standing on his own two feet, looking like he was ready. Before I could get close to him, the lights came on in the rest of the room as the Mushroom Army moved from the far shadows to swarm us.

"Luigi." Elvin says softly to me, without looking me directly in the eye. "Get clear." He says.

"What?" I ask.

"I said . . ." Elvin cocks his robotic arm back. "MOVE!" He throws a punch in my direction. I leap to the left as his chopper shoots past me and cleans a path through the Mushroom Army behind me. Blood flies everywhere as I hear the Mushroom Guard scream. I turn back to see the carnage. The chopper makes a sharp u-turn and comes back at us. "It's about to pull up, hop on!" Elvin directs me. As the chopper zooms by us, we hop on. The chopper zooms out of the building and within seconds, we're high above the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Holy shit, Elvin!" I say, looking across the Kingdom from the chopper.

"You good Luigi?" Elvin says.

"Elvin how did you do, any of-"

"HAH!" I heard a voice behind me. I ducked. I saw the stuttering toad fly over me and toward Elvin. Before I can warn him, Elvin turns around and elbows the attacker with his metal arm. The toad stops in his tracks and falls to his knees, holding his face in pain. I see blood pouring down his wrists as I stand behind him. His muffled screams can be heard above the propeller. Elvin takes his pilot seat as he begins to shout over the propeller.

"Let's get the hell out of here!"

"Right! We gotta find Mario, and fast!" I replied.

"What? No. Are you out of your mind? We're getting the hell out of here! We gotta go home! And even home probably ain't safe! Fuck it! We'll swoop by our houses, pick up some clothes, some food, my piranha plant, and get even farther away from the Kingdom. That's if our houses aren't occupied by the guard already!" A terrible chord struck in me. His piranha plant. The fucking piranha plant. Elliot.

"Elvin!" I shout over the chaos.

"What Lui-Oh shit!" He looks down at his radar. "Mortar, INBOUND! And it's huge!" Elvin shouts. I looked out the side of the chopper to see the huge flaming projectile heading upward for us. I look at the stuttering toad writhing in front of me. Without a second thought, I kicked him out of the chopper and towards the mortar. The impact of his body steers the projectile clear of the chopper. His blood rains down on the citizens below. "Luigi, are you insane?!"

"What?" I ask. He doesn't turn from his pilot chair to shout back at me.

"If you think Toadsworth wanted your head before, you just killed what might be his last relative! We gotta get out of here!"

"Elvin no! Listen to me!" I carefully stumble to the front of the chopper.

"No YOU listen Luigi. Everyone around the Kingdom fears you and that's all fine. You're this figure that puts fear in hearts, bodies in boxes, money in your pocket and mine. No one can lay a hand on your head and because of that, they don't come near mine.

But these past couple days that's changed. Because the princess hired you to do a job. A job you knew deep down would be more difficult but you took it anyway. Tell me, what happened when you found Mario at the compound? Did he kick your ass as hard as I think he did?"

"You're in dangerous territory Elvin." I said trying to remain calm. "Choose your next words carefully." He puts the chopper on autopilot, stands up and turns to face me.

"Fuck you! You won't dare put a hand on me. Hell, you _need_ me. Without me you'd be dead ten times by now. Let me ask you, if you hadn't known I'd help you, would you have ever taken the job from Peach? Your wife's dead, your brother is probably about to be and the rest of the kingdom hates your fucking guts! Newsflash, Player 2. I'M THE ONLY FRIEND YOU'VE GOT. Hell, I'd give up my arm for you, but look where the fuck THAT got me?" He holds up his robotic arm for me to see. "So don't go fucking threatening me when I try to protect the two things in this world you barley give a shit about!"

"Hey, you think I wanna be this way? They took the only thing in my life that doesn't remind me of killing! They took wife, Elvin! At least I got something to show remorse for and not some freaky piranha plant experiment I call my child!"

"How did you know about my . . . Wait. Did you go snooping in my lab?"

"I needed some weapons so I-"

"Needed weapons? Wait. Did you . . . is my DAUGHTER down there. Did you bring my daughter into this hell hole?

"I was trying to save it. I knew it couldn't be safe at home."

"Well we've gotta go get her!" We both looked down at the kingdom. We can see them prepping another mortar. Elvin turns to me. I stare back. He puts a finger to my face. "Don't think this is over." He makes an outward gesture with his robotic arm. The chopper takes a hard u-turn as the mortar comes flying toward us.

"Elvin, what are you doing?" I ask. No answer. He walks past me toward the edge of the cockpit. "Elvin, what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm coming to get ya Elliot!" He shouts as he dives out of the chopper, toward the flaming projectile.

"ELVIN!"

"ELLIOT!" His voice echoes about the Mushroom skyline as I watch him cock his metal fist back and punch the flaming heap. The shattering sounded like thunder. Dust and rock begins to rain down on the castle. I can't see Elvin's body through all the dust. I can hear screams of mushroom citizens as rock rains down on them. The chopper begins to guide itself back downward. It settles among all the soot and rubble. Visibility is limited. The air. There is much confusion, screaming in the distance. It's crazy, but I'm safe for now. Before I step out of the chopper, I hear the radio wind up. It plays a recording from Elvin.

"Don't ask how I knew. Don't ask how I did it. To answer those, we'd have to go back through all the other times I saved your ass without so much as a thank you."

His voice in this recording was different than the Elvin I knew. In fact, he had sounded a lot more dark and hoarse since I saw him hanging in that cage. Since I came back to save him. I continued to listen to the recording.

"Yeah, you watched Toadsworth cut my arm off. I was pretty torn up about it. But then, you also watched your wife die. And as far as you knew, I was dead. I figured you'd been punished enough. Now if you're hearing this, something's happened to me. Maybe I'm dead, maybe I'll be back soon. Either way, I got you in the chopper near the castle. I know you came here to save me, though you'd never admit it. I know you're still after your brother. And I _know_ , it's not about the money. Long story short, your brother is an unstoppable force, save for one thing: King Koopa.

To find King Koopa, you'll have to go back to Obsidian. Make your way to Peach's chambers. You'll find a way to Obsidian there. If you wait around the Koopa King's domain long enough, you'll see your brother. Luigi, Mario beat you before in a head-on fight. He'll do it again, always. The only way to kill an apex predator is to do so as it goes for its own prey. You just better hope and pray, that it ain't you." End of message.

Fuck Elvin. He's right, almost every word of it. But fuck 'em. How was he able to predict all this? Hell, we'd probably be home safe now, but the only thing he couldn't predict was me taking Elliot. Even after all this, he's still helping me. I try to help him and Elliot, and Elvin ends up having to dive from an airborne chopper and smash a mortar over the entire kingdom. But there's no time to think about that. Not right now. I struggle my way to the castle. It's easier to get to with the dust and the castle being decimated. It became easier to see when I made it to the foyer.

I thought about where I was going. Toadstool's chambers. I remembered the last time Mario and I tried to go there alone.

 **Flashback *Luigi and Mario sit in the Mushroom Kingdom holding cell.***

"You believe this shit brotha?" Mario says to me.

"Just sit and wait, Mario. They won't keep us here long."

"And how da fuck would you know that. Huh?"

"They gave us our phone call. It'll take a while. But eventually my wife will come and get us out of here."

"Why the hell you move way out there in the first place, Luigi?"

"Because when I hang out in the Kingdom with you, we end up in jail, waiting for my wife to come and bail us out. Or a number of other bullshit jobs the crown sends us on, usually involving saving your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend, bro."

"Whatever the hell she is. Where is she now? Why wasn't she in her chambers when we went there? And why are we in jail just for going unannounced?" I ranted.

"I think you mean why are we in jail, period. We're the fuckin Mario Brothers. We're likely to see someone we put in here if we stay here long enough!"

"The legal system is not an efficient one, bro." I attempted to reason with him.

"Bullshit. Ya know what it is?" Mario asked. But I knew he was going to answer himself. "It's the merger. We take in the Koopa Kingdom as part of the Mushroom Kingdom and these damn shell-walkers and goombas are infesting our streets. Taking our jobs, stirring up crime. It's slowing down the justice system."

"Wow, you actually managed to invent a derogatory term for koopas. Nice bro."

"Oh calm down, ya pansy!" Mario says, walking up to the bars of the cell. He shouts at the guard that sits at the desk. "Hey buddy, what's going on, why are we still here?"

"I don't know." The blue-shelled koopa responds, "maybe it's all the _shell-walkers_. Piss off."

"Alright, that's it!" Mario says. I watch from my bench as he cocks his fist back.

"Mario." I say as calmly as I can in hopes he'll calm down. It didn't work. He fire-punches the lock on the cell and blows the whole door off. The door smashes into the desk and pins the koopa at it. Mario runs out into the open.

"Let's clear it bro!" He says.

"Get back here!" A goomba guard shouts from down the hall. Mario turned his attention to him. The goomba jumps at Mario. Mario blocks his attack and begins wailing on it. As I walk toward the two, I see another koopa guard running up behind Mario with a dagger. He leaps toward my brother. I can see from his arm length that my reach is longer than his. I rolled in his pathway and cocked my hand back and gave him a spear hand thrust. I was surprised when he didn't fly backward. My hand had penetrated his shell. I felt something beneath the shell break. I put him down and snatched my hand out. My glove is red. He stoops to one knee and looks me in the eye. He spits up blood on my shoe. I stumble back in discomfort. Before I fall, Mario catches me by the collar. He drags us out of the holding station faster than anyone could carry two men.

 **End of Flashback**

I came to Peach's doors. I took a deep breath before kicking the door in.

"You really know how to keep your _eye_ on the ball. Don't you, Luigi?" Princess Toadstool was already there. I closed and barricaded the door behind me.

"No time for your shit, Peach. Where's the entrance?" I asked.

"The entrance to what?"

"Obsidian!"

"What is that?"

"Do you _seriously_ not know!"

" _Don't_ raise your voice! Please." She was distraught.

"Look." I said. "Is there a place in this room that you never use? Somewhere you never look? She paused briefly before answering.

"Toadsworth's trunk." She pointed to a brown and white trunk in the corner near her closet. It had a lock on it. That had to be it.

"Open it!" I said

"I don't have the key."

"What do you mean you don't have the key? It's _your room. Your castle!_ "

"It's Toadsworth's trunk!"

"What the fuck kind of princess are you? Your advisor has a private trunk full of probably _everything_ you would need to know that he was going rouge?"

"Fuck you, Luigi!"

* **THUMP, THUMP, THUMP** *

"What was that?" She asked with sudden panic.

"My guess is, it's Toadsworth's goons. Speaking of which, where are yours?"

"The few that stood by me, Toadsworth's forces annihilated them." She suddenly hung her head. More footsteps got closer to the door. I ran toward the locked trunk.

"OSS!" I smashed the lock off the trunk and opened it. "Just as I thought." A smaller version of the portal I saw earlier."

"Take me with you!" Peach shouts running toward me.

"What? You don't even know where I'm going! It's dangerous. Obsidian is full of King Koopa's denizens and it's dangerous. I almost died, multiple times!"

"I _will_ die, if I stay here!" The footsteps get louder. I hear Toadsworth's old and angry voice.

"Your highness, I would send you to meet your maker . . ." He kicks in the door. "But I am already here!" I grabbed Peach and threw her in the portal. "LUIGI! You re not quite the coward I thought you were."

"Screw off Toadsworth!" I shot lightning at him. A mushroom guard hops in front and takes the bolt. I don't stick around to see what else happens. I follow Princess Peach. The portal drops me behind what appears to be a hospital. Peach and I impact the ground pretty hard. I hear an alarm go off. I hit my head pretty hard on the impact. I close my eyes to gather my bearings.

I must have dosed off. By the time I opened my eyes, I was in a hospital bed. I was surrounded by yellow koopas, spikes in their shells. The one close to my head speaks for them.

"Mr. Luigi, I presume. We're glad to see you're okay. Don't worry, Obsidian City Healthcare is free to all, locals and tourists alike." She says.

"What did you do to me?" I ask.

"We fixed you up. You hit your head pretty hard. Plus you hadn't taken your capsule. You could have easily died of heat stroke."

"I gotta go." I said getting up. I was pleased to see I still wore my clothes and they were clean. "Was there a woman here with me?" I asked.

"Yes. Princess Toadstool, she was understandably apprehensive when she first awakened. But she soon thanked us for our services and went walking about the hospital."

"Geez." I went off to find her. It didn't take long. She was in a room down the hall. But it wasn't a patient room. It was a break room. She was standing up looking at a TV. I saw a logo that said Obsidian City News. "What are you watching?" I say walking up next to Peach. I begin to watch the news with her. A news anchor goes on with a video of a burning building in the background. The news anchor speaks on it.

"Obsidian City Police have been investigating diligently and have concluded that the true Green's Goods-Bomber was in fact Mario of he Mushroom Kingdom. As such, they've oriented all of their attention to the public menace. All civilians are advised to report any sighting or information to the proper authorities. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT attempt to apprehend Mario yourself." This city looks out for its people better than the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Hey guy, small world!" I hear a voice say from behind. Peach and I turn to see it. "What brings you here, Lynus?" Lynus? Why would he . . . Wait. The shy guy I met when I came here last time.

"Shaun? Shaun the shy guy." I said remembering his name.

"Actually it's just Shaun. What are you doing here, guy?"

"I had a small accident, but I'm good now. Your TV here is interesting."

"I know right?" Shaun says. "Obsidian City news channel? We live in a dome surrounded by magma. The news story should be the same every day and it should say 'We're surrounded by magma in a heat-proof glass dome and we're not all dead, how is this possible?' People should be looking up at the top of the dome going 'Oh, wow, amazing!' It's crazy man."

An awkward silence falls over the room. Peach breaks it.

"Well okay, we have to go now, we'll be seeing you." She grabs my hand and leads me out of the room.

"Later, Lynus." Shaun shouts. "Be careful." What an idiot.

Peach and I start heading for the exit.

"Where are we?" She asks me.

"Somewhere you could learn from." I answer. We get to the front exit of the hospital. The doors slide open automatically as I walk through. Peach stays inside. I turn around to face her. "What's your problem?" I ask.

"Luigi, in light of everything, if you can't at least pretend to respect me, I think we're done here." Done? Fuck that. I humored her.

"Alright look, Toadstool. This is Obsidian. An underground city mostly full of the Koopa King and his subjects. And probably a small minority of your old ones as well. Bowser didn't disappear. He just came down here. And Mario followed him. And this place, is meant to be a new fresh start for Bowser's people, and any refugees that left the Kingdom. They're super hospitable. Everything is either free or easy to get to. And nothing bad ever happens here except . . ." I trailed off in realization.

"Except what?" Peach asked.

"Except when me and my brother come here. Wow. And now I've brought you here." I turned back around to the car port outside of the Obsidian City Hospital. There's a good amount of traffic coming through, picking people up, dropping them off. Some of them look like they recognize me and Peach. But no one looks appalled. One of the taxis stops in front of us. A green-shelled koopa with spikes on his shell is sitting in the driver's seat as he rolls the window down. He speaks to us in an excited voice.

"Hey, you guys are Luigi and Princess Toadstool, right?" He asks.

"Yeah. That gonna be a problem?" I reply.

"What are you kidding me? Hop in. This rides on me!"

The princess and I shrug at each other before hopping in the backseat and closing the door. The driver pulls off. Peach notices the spikes on his shell.

"What are those spikes on your shell?" She asks. "I don't usually see them on koopas besides the King."

"Good question sweetheart. Ya see, Obsidian is miles and miles below the surface. Liquid magma everywhere all around us. Sure the dome protects keeps it away, helps us see, but we had to get here first. And there weren't enough STD suits to go around. Those were rare at the time. Most, if not all of us, were injected with a sort of heat resistance when we came here. Helps us not die of heat stroke and venture out of the dome in case of emergency. These spikes on my shell? Just a very common side effect for koopas. You'll find most of us down here have em."

"I didn't know the Koopa King was capable of such a thing." Peach said in amazement.

"Well yeah he's alright. But now the real genius behind it is Lieutenant Green of Green Enterprises. Best scientist and entrepreneur in the world. You'll find his name on a lot of the businesses we pass by." This was good insight, but I couldn't let my guard down. I had to ask.

"Hey, I know you guys treat your tourists well here so, not that I don't trust you but, where are you taking us?" I ask.

"Wherever you need to go." He answers. He makes a right onto Lucid Lane. "Courtesy of Obsidian City Healthcare. In the past day or so, investigators concluded that it was Mario who did all those murders and bombings. And when you turned up in our hospital, we figured the two of you were in pursuit."

"Wow, you guys are good. This bimbo assumed Mario killed her dad and it turns out it was her most trusted advisor. HA!" I laughed, as if Peach weren't sitting right next to me.

"Yeah." The driver said. "Mushroom Kingdom justice has always been pretty shitty. Anyway, you guys are our best hope to find Mario and put him down for good. Or at least get him the hell out of Obsidian. I love this place. We got jobs, kids, lives here man!"

"Hey, so what about this Lieutenant Green? What's he do now?" I asked.

"Saddest thing." The driver said. "Everyone can't handle the pressure. King Koopa trusted Green and what did he do? He betrayed the King and Obsidian. Strike one was when his enterprises launched a secret campaign that ultimately garnished thousands of his employees wages for his own account. Strike two was when his building company intentionally built the only impoverished neighborhood in the city on Lucid Lane, resulting in the creation of Opaque. The final straw I suppose was when he attempted to overthrow the King."

"And how'd that go?" I asked.

"How do you think?" He answered. "King Koopa killed him. A real shame if you ask me. Green's family goes from having the most famous dad in Obsidian, to no dad at all. Look at me, rambling. Where are you folks heading?"

"We need to see the Koopa King. We don't want trouble. But we need to beat my brother to him."

"Alright. We'll just keep straight on Lucid Lane." And so we did. It brought us back to the same crystal clear waters as before. Except when he drove toward the dock, he didn't slow down. A tunnel formed around the dock that took us into the water. "Good, that means the King is OK with us coming." A lot of inclines and turns eventually took us to our stop. A large door with King Koopa's face on it. "It's been a real pleasure serving you. He opened the tunnel that goes straight to his throne room so he either trusts you or really wants to see you. You have a nice stay." He said as we got out of the car. And with that he left. It was just me, Peach, and the door leading to Bowser.

"Luigi, something isn't right." Peach said to me, looking at the door.

"What are you talking about?" I teased. "We're about to be in Bowser's quarters, you should feel right at home!"

"Fuck you, Luigi! That's not what I meant. You killed Bowser Junior. Why would King Koopa and all of his people welcome and rush you to his chambers?"

"I don't know. But that question doesn't help us now." I opened the door. It didn't actually lead directly to Bowser. It was a long corridor with a very tall ceiling. An audio log lays on the ground in front of us. Peach picks it up and presses play. I was expecting Mario, or Bowser. But it was neither of them.

"Give me that!" I say, snatching the log from her. I begin walking toward the other side of the corridor as the log plays. Peach follows me. The voice of the audio log was a raspy, almost whisper-like tone. And the voice sounded familiar:

"The soyn of great knowledge is knowing how to use it. The soyn of true power is how one behives without it. Or rather, how one faces the threat of losing their power. I was a shoyning example of what the wuking stiff could achieve in Obsidian, so long as he didn't give up. I didn't rest on my laurels when I fortified Obsidian. I gave us structure, roads, businesses, healthcare. My droive was unmatched by any man in Obsidian. Except for one. The Koopa King. It came to our attention, that our _intentions_ no longer loined up. And the King has the nerve to call me disloyal, negligent to me job even. _ME!_ Can you imagine?

When I fust enlisted in the Koopa Troopa, I pledged me allegiance and loyalty to King Koopa. Even when he dragged us underground, I stayed steadfast. I made Obsidian what it is today in less than two years. We've taken two steps forward. And now the King looks to set us foive steps back. I don't even think he realizes it! And now the Koopa King wants me to help him with this hot-headed operation. To hell with him! It's not about the King. It's about the cause.

The King was roit. I have neglected me rank. For my loyalty lies not with the Koopa King, but with The City of Obsidian."

Lieutenant Green. This must have been his last reflection.

We got to the door as the log ended. Peach grabs my shoulder as I grab the door handle to Bowser.

"Luigi." She says. "Mario and the Koopa King are two of the most dangerous people on Earth. Are you sure we want to go in there? I can pay you for your troubles. We can leave this all behind. Alive." I scowled. But then, I smiled before answering.

"Power is everything princess, you should know that. There's power in the ability to end life. But it's not how many lives you take-it's what taking those lives does. The chain of events it leads to. We're both murderers, Peach. But we have much more power than Mario or Bowser. You don't gotta be afraid of them.

If anything, you should fear Toadsworth. He's not a good person, but he's a much better ruler than you. A much better leader.

But us, just look at us. Before I was just a hired gun for you and your dad. Now, I'm a full-blown menace fore money. A bloodhound born the day I killed Bowser Jr. And when I killed Bowser Junior, I drove the Koopa King underground.

In a way, _I_ created Obsidian. Through a chain of events, I built this city. But through another chain of events, guess who made me this way?" At that question she took her hand off my shoulder and began to look at both of her hands with disgust. Beneath her gloves, I can see the benign magic coursing through her veins. "You're a magic-wielding princess with no idea how to use your magic or your authority. But one thing you did manage to make-" I raised my hand with fire and clinched it in my fist. "was me. You see Peach, we're the most dangerous people on Earth. Now let's go lay in the bed we made." I cracked open door. "Oh, and Peach, don't touch me again." I opened the door and we entered Bowser's throne room.

 **Meanwhile, back in the Mushroom Kingdom, amid the decimation of the castle and mortar debris.**

I am Professor Elvin Gadd. The greatest mind in the Kingdom still living. I saw that the crown was not fit for progress so for years I aided Luigi and his brother Mario. All this time, I _knew_ I was fighting for good, helping people in the long run. Several years, a war, a merger, a retreat and one missing arm later, I think the smartest thing to do would have been to take my chopper and fly far away. From the Kingdom. From Mario. From Luigi. I'm just so tired of trying to clean things up. And even if I do, the recognition will either go to Mario, Luigi, or the crown.

I was captured by Toadsworth and the Mushroom guard while helping my partner Luigi. I was caught near the explosion site where Peach's dad was killed. Knowing how the royals usually pass through town, I was able to easily conclude that the explosion came from within the King's ranks. Toadsworth must have seen me snooping. That's when I was captured.

Fast-forward to me jumping from a moving aircraft and pulverizing an incoming mortar. There's dust gravel and soot all over now. It's hard to breathe in. But it gave me a softer landing. I was half buried in the gravel, thinking about my next move when I heard him.

"Impressive." I heard Toadsworth's voice say. I was triggered. I sat up out of the gravel immediately.

"Toadsworth!" I shouted, getting to my feet. "I'll fucking end you." Kamek stands silently next to him. The ground begins to shake.

"And still alive." Toadsworth said. "I'll be damned. You should have taken my offer to work for the crown years ago, Gadd. Your decision is coming back to kill you." The ground shakes again.

"What is that?" I asked, approaching him.

"It is the end. And the beginning. But it _is_ nothing you need to worry about." Toadsworth says. "The Mario Brothers must have rubbed off on you. A true fighter until the end. Well then, won't you deal with their old demons?"

At that moment as I approached them, Kamek waved his wand and the gravel beneath me shifted. I sank into it almost neck deep. It was suddenly harder to move through.

"How . . . How are you" I said I was struggling. "How are you alive, Kamek?" The ground shaking intensified.

"I was never dead." He replied simply. "I was however, mortally wounded-for a while. In order to survive, I had to expel my magic-so that my body might have a fighting chance at survival. But the magic had to go somewhere. I made sure it couldn't get to Mario. But I knew it would be harmless in the hands of Princess Toadstool. The Koopa King scraped me from the battlefield while I was on the verge of death, and his best medics worked tirelessly to recover my body, while I did the same, to relearn my magic." The ground shaking intensifies steadily.

"Mario, should have been more thorough." I said.

"Agreed." said the wizard.

"Kamek!" Toadsworth shouts. "You talk too much. Here." He turns his cane upside down. A super-sharp blade slides out. "Finish him. Honestly, we kill this one, and the Mario Brothers will be a cake-walk." Well at least someone knows.

"No need for the cane, Toadsworth." Kamek says holding up his magic wand. As he holds it in the air, it morphs into a mighty double-edged sword. "I've got my own." The ground shakes continuously now.

"Fair enough." Toadsworth says, backing clear of Kamek's swing. "This is much more gallant an ending than I predicted for you, Gadd. I guess in a way, we're doing you a favor."

Kamek raised his sword to one side to decapitate me.

"Heh heh." I chuckled. "Sorry Luigi, Elliot, Mario, everyone. I let you all down." The last thing I heard, was the sword cutting through the air.

But it never hit me. Instead I heard a loud rumbling and watched as Elliot shot up from beneath the rubble and took Kamek in her jaws. She was about five times any of our size now. She must have spilled from her pot and taken root in the Kingdom.

"AAAAHHH-" *crunch* Kamek is not given time for a full scream before he is chomped to bits violently and devoured by Elliot. In the moment, I was happy that she saved my life. But it was still horrifying to watch. I didn't know someone with Kamek's stature had so much blood in them. On the bright side, he wouldn't come back from this. Some of his blood splashed across my face. It's disgusting, horrifying. But my doing in the long run. I hear her do one final gulp of Kamek's body parts. Then she straightens her head and looks at me. She recognizes me. She does not appear threatening. But she does appear confused. Weary. Faint?

Suddenly, she falls to her side. But her kind don't fall. They simply retreat below surface. Unless . . .

I looked through the dust as it cleared. Her stem has been cut. Chopped like a tree. Elliot, is dead. Toadsworth steps over her body, his blade still drawn. The ground continues to shake as he approaches me.

"Pitiful." He says. "Did you think killing that freak of nature would be any different than all the other weeds I've plucked for the sake of the Kingdom?" The ground shaking becomes deafening. But Toadsworth stays his footing.

"Elliot." I said softly.

Toadsworth swung his blade at me.

 **Meanwhile, entering the Koopa King's throne room in Obsidian.**

"Welcome Luigi." Bowser said to me as we entered. He is just a large, just as menacing as I remember. His voice is just as disturbingly deep. He stands just fifteen feet from my brother, Mario, who is beaten and bloody, his clothes tattered. There are dead green spike-shelled koopas all over the throne-room.

"Brotha." Mario says, panting on one knee. "You made it. Behind me." He points to the far wall behind him. There was a red button, protected in glass. "That button will destroy the Mushroom Kingdom above us."

"Correct." Bowser confirms. "And I must admit, Mario is the only thing standing in the way of me and that button. Literally speaking of course. Getting to it won't actually be difficult. However, I did not expect Luigi and the Princess. But just as well. Not only will my Kingdom rise again, but I'll already have killed the Mario Brothers. And I'll already have my queen." He looks lustfully at Princess Peach.

"So you couldn't take him on, eh bro?" I teased.

"F-f-fuck you, bro." He replies, getting to his feet and in his fighting stance. "Come on Koopa King." He cocks his fist back and clinches fire in it. He charges at Bowser.

Bowser enters his shell and moves at high speed toward my brother. He pops out and punches Mario across the room when they meet. Mario stays his footing, but his feet slide all the way back to the wall, shattering the glass over the button, and pushing it in the process. He falls to his knees and then to his stomach. Pieces of glass are sticking out of his back.

"Mario!" Peach shouts, sprinting toward his downed body. Bowser let's her. Mario is unconscious. The entire room then begins to rumble.

"Shit! What's happening?" I shout.

"The end. And the beginning." Bowser answers. "You see I'm not just going to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom. I'm going to replace it as well. Obsidian lies just beneath the Mushroom Kingdom. So too does my castle lie right below the Mushroom Kingdom's. In fact, the Mushroom Kingdom Castle lies just above a volcano. As we speak, that volcano is pushing itself to the surface, along with the rest of the city. The lava will consume the Mushroom castle first. And from that lava, will rise my own castle. The rest of Obsidian will then rise up as the dome destroys the Mushroom Kingdom before giving way to my glorious city. Our structures will resist the lava while yours will burn. Obsidian will rise, destroy and replace the Mushroom Kingdom. And it will all belong to me. Now, process like this, might take a while. But not that long. Face it Luigi. You've all failed."

"Mario." Peach says, kneeling next to Mario, attempting to stir him. He does stir, just little bit. Just enough to say:

"I . . . t-told you so." He's such an asshole. I took a few steps toward Bowser before taking my fighting stance.

"Alright, King Koopa." I said. "Let's go."

To be continued . . .

Hey everyone Battalion Ice here, the one and the only. Thanks to everyone that's continued reading this to the end, especially those of you who started reading this when chapter 1 was first posted and we all know how long ago that was. If you follow my other work, you know that I have a five-part epic that started six years ago and to this day, isn't over. All these years, school has played a big factor in me finishing things. Now that that's not as big a factor, I have a question for the readers.

I'm drawing up plans and trying to get necessary resources together to take this fan-fiction [as well as my other fan-fictions] to a more visual/animated level. This is likely to be either a webcomic or in "sprite-like" animations. If this is something you would tune into or support, let me know in the reviews or as a PM. Again, thanks for reading and be sure to check back in for the next chapter of

The City of Obsidian.


	10. Chapter 10: The Final Sunset

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Nintendo/Super Mario Universe characters mentioned below. They are property of the aforementioned and their appropriate affiliates. Please support the official games and merchandise.

Bowser and I charged toward each other. He goes into shell and speeds up. I flip over him as he zooms past me. I shoot thunder at him as I flip. It bounces right off his shell. We recover from the exchange and stare each other down. I take a quick look at the mural on the ceiling before looking back at Bowser.

"Do you like it?" The Koopa King asks. "It's glass. Magma-proof glass, each section with different thickness that allows the orange magma to appear in different shades." The image is of The Koopa King, who appears looming over his kingdom. The kingdom itself looks like Obsidian. But the landscape resembles the Mushroom Kingdom. The Koopa King still had his eyes on the prize. We begin walking toward each other slowly.

"Same old Koopa King." I teased. "Still failing to beat the Mushroom Kingdom."

"Same old Luigi." He responded as we got closer. "Still a bitch." He goes for the low sweep. I jump clear, pulling out my hammer as I descend. He blocks my shot with his chest. His shell is still as strong as ever. I jump backwards. He charges as I jump and grabs me before I can land. He leaps into the air and holds me under him as he belly-flops. It smashes me into the floor. "Feel that?" He teases. "That's the weight of the Koopa Kingdom." He grabs me by the foot. I'm in too much pain to move at this point. He slings me across the room. I scrape the stone floors hard before rolling toward Peach and Mario. Bowser goes into his shell and zips right up to the three of us. He grabs me and holds me upside down by the foot once more. "What's the matter. Is the weight of the Koopa Kingdom too much?" He begins viciously punching and clawing me with his free hand. "Imagine carrying that weight on your own shoulders as the Koopa King!" The Koopa King always packed a punch. But the force of these blows felt like they'd been waiting underground for a long time, just for Mario and me to come back. "Day" He drives his fist into my gut. "After Day!" He claws at my neck. "AFTER DAY!" He hits me square in the face. Blood pours from it and hits the floor audibly. "But you don't care about that." He tosses me high in the air, my hat begins to fly off. I turn and grab it a I descend. Bowser jumps in the air and starts spinning in his shell. When we match altitudes his hand comes out and spikes me back down to the ground. A small crater forms around me. Bowser lands.

He looks down at me, then at Mario and Peach. He chuckles.

"Peach commands the Kingdom, even _Mario_ commanded the Red Army. But you Luigi. You don't know what it's like to have something of your own creation. Your own passion. And have it constantly threatened. Or even, taken from you." He steps on my leg.

"GAAAHHH!" I scream. He is as heavy as he looks.

"Oh wait, that's right, you had a wife." He teased. "Didn't you? I suppose you figured, a life for a wife." He took his foot off my leg. "But the King doesn't play to get even." He picked me up by my shirt.

"Is that why you brought your son back?" I asked, spitting up blood.

"What did you just say?" He asked.

"You heard me." I said.

His smile left. His grip tightened.

"I'm glad your brother get's to watch you die, Luigi." He says. He opens his mouth and spawns fire. The fire is blood-red. I haven't seen him do this up close in a long time. Despite so many things, I know the Koopa King was never hell-bent on murder. That would be me. That would be my brother. My bother and I always fought him together. But fighting the Koopa King one on one is reminding me that he is quite the force to be reckoned with. And that he rarely fought to kill. Only to further his conquest.

"Fuck off, Bowser!" Said a voice from behind me. Mario rolls up to Bowser and clubs upward with his hammer, striking Bowser on the chin. Bowser drops me and stumbles backwards. He turns around and struggles to regain his equilibrium. He could just fall to the ground. But I can see his body, refusing to. Mario walks up to me and stretches out his hand. His clothes are still battered but he looks to be in much better shape. Good as new, even. I grab his hand and stand up.

"How?" I ask Mario.

"Turns out the bimbo in the pink dress is good for somethin." He points to Peach, who sits on the ground with her gloves removed, a lighter aura of colors courses through her veins now. "For Kamek, that magic was dangerous. But in the hands of the princess, it's a tool for us to finally _kill_ the Koopa King."

"Kill the Koopa King." Bowser mocks as he walks back toward us, a small trail of blood running down his shell. "You think killing me will finally satisfy you? You think you could kill me if you _fucking_ tried?"

"Get him." Mario says. And at that moment, we charged at the enemy as brothers for the first time in, forever. We leaped at him in unison. He grabs us both by the face and begins squeezing. Hard. I think my nose is breaking. Either way blood is dripping from my face.

"You two!" Bowser said holding us both, squeezing our heads. It was painfully humbling. "You two have done nothing but stand in my way of making the perfect Kingdom! You're not protectors, you're obstacles. Potholes on my road to glory! Every time I try to build, _you two_ insert yourselves into the equation. Even at the risk of your own lives! Why?"

In his question, I heard the actual difference between The Koopa King and The Mario Brothers. Bowser lives for his conquest, not for the killing. The Mario Brothers, it would appear, live to kill Bowser and his family. This possible reality made me more uncomfortable than getting my skull crushed. I raised my hand and shot a blind shot of lightning at Bowser. Unable to block it, he takes it to the face and stumbles back, holding his face. He shouts louder in rage.

"I left you behind. I built Obsidian! I built a utopia in a place most would assume Hell lies. And yet you still had nothing better to do with your lives!" He had yet to look up from his hands while talking. My brother and I knew what that meant. We looked at each other, nodded, and leaped clear as Bowser shot fire from his mouth. This time, the fire was blue. The Koopa King was pissed.

We rolled to either side to surround him. We rushed him from both sides. He does a quick 180 and deflects me with his momentum. Mario dodges his deflection and jumps high to kick him in the face. I recover and return to attack. Mario and I begin exchanging blows from both sides in an effort to overwhelm King Koopa.

But the shots he didn't block had little to no effect on his thick shell. Yet every few shots he would graze or cut us with one of his claws. Catching each others glance, Mario and I crouched low and jumped up to attack Bowser's head. Mario attempts to grab it as I go for the kick.

Bowser tucks his head back into his shell. My kick lands dead center of Mario's face, sending him to the ground. Bowser's head pops back out. His horn grazes my extended leg and I fall helplessly to the ground. Bowser goes into his shell and zips across the room. His shell hits the stone wall hard. That area of the wall does a slight indent before retracting upward and revealing several TVs. My brother and I stand up to see. Bowser only looks at us, slightly gesturing to the screens behind him.

"I built a city where only me and my finest would have to worry about defending ourselves against outside threat!" Bowser says.

"What is this?" Mario says, panting. "You were spying on us?" The screens behind Bowser are showing different parts of Obsidian, in high definition. Some places we had been already. Some we didn't.

"Spying on you?" Bowser says, pausing to spit out small embers in disgust. "Why the fuck would the Koopa King move down here, and make plans to spy on the Mario Brothers? I keep these cameras around my city to ensure that everything is running smoothly and that my subjects are safe. To keep them happy before we strike our revenge. But you. _Both_ of you. I knew you two would follow me, even if it meant plunging to the depths. You showed up on my cameras.

I watched Mario set fire to a grocery store. I watched Mario bomb an Obsidian City bus.

I watched Luigi interact with my sewer workers. He spared the life of my senior sewer worker, only to later watch Mario snap the neck of his wife. Serves her right, I suppose. Going to Opaque while the husband's at work.

I watched both of you go into the depths of Opaque. And even they were not safe! What were you afraid of, Luigi? The ladies of Opaque being better in bed than Daisy? Or were you afraid one of the koopas would make you their bitch?" He's just trying to get in my head. I won't let him.

"You." I said. "You knew we were here and exactly where we were. You could have saved some of your citizens Mario terrorized. You let them die."

"Collateral, necessary." The Koopa King replied. "Now because of your sibling rivalry, I have the people on my side for our rise to the surface. Whether they see it coming, or not." Both of these men are sick. I can't quite tell who's worse, but one thing is for sure. I _do_ call one of them brother.

"Damn you." Mario says, upset that he'd been made to a pawn. "Luigi, let's end this."

"Right". I say.

Bowser goes into his shell and zips toward us again. Mario and I pull out our hammers and send his shell toward the ceiling. Bowser comes out of his shell mid flight. He fixes himself and hip drops back to the ground in front of us. I hold out a hand and begin charging a thunder-ball. Mario leaps at Bowser with his hammer. I continue charging. Bowser deflects Mario back toward me. Mario lands and uses his hammer to launch my thunderbolt. The electricity rocks the Koopa King. He falls to his stomach.

"Let's finish it." Mario says, leaping over him. He grabs Bowser by the tail and starts spinning him. Every time Bowser's head passes me, I smack him with my hammer as hard as I can. The Koopa King's face gets bloody and fast. After while, Mario drops him. "You're finished Koopa King!"

Bowser groans, spits up bloody fire, and then slowly begins standing-to our amazement.

"The Koopa King, is never done." He says calmly before raising his head. A blue flame spawns in his mouth.

"Shit!" I exclaim. "Mario, Bounce Bros!"

"Right." My brother says. I jump in the air. He meets me in the air beneath my feet and tilts us toward toward Bowser. We both land on his head before he can turn his fire to us. He is dazed for a moment. We land on either side of his shoulders and grab a hold of his horns. We begin puling them apart.

"AAAAAHHH!" The Koopa King Screams in agony. "No matter what happens, you can't save that fucked up kingdom of yours! YOU HEAR ME?!" As we struggle with Bowser's head. We see a quick green flash go across the room.

"GKHT!" The princess makes a quick noise and is silenced by something. Our eyes follow the sound to where she is. She is still standing where we left her. But she has fallen to her knees.

"Are you okay?" Mario asked, still struggling with Bowser and me. The princess doesn't respond. She only coughs up blood before a spike-shelled figure grabs her head from behind. With a quick motion it snaps her neck. Her head and body fall awkwardly to the stone floor. I stay my grip and look over at Mario.

"Bro, are you okay? Keep pulling!" There was no telling how he'd react, but we couldn't face Bowser and whoever this newcomer was. Not at the same time. "Bro? Mario?" Mario is still holding tightly to Bowser's horn, but his face has lost intensity. He only stares at the princess' corpse.

"HUGH!" Mario shouts. And with a quick but painful motion, he jerks back and rips his half of Bowser's head clean off. Me and the rest of Bowser's body fall to the ground.

The Koopa King, is finally dead.

"Damn." Mario says, standing and holding his half of Bowser's head by the horn. "This is no good to mount on my wall. I should have thought this through." He looks over at the shadows near Peach's corpse. "Show yourself, or else." The strange figure begins stepping from the shadows, right next to Peach's corpse. The figure is much smaller than Bowser. But still looks familiar. Deathly familiar. I scramble to my feet as my vision clears. It was him. Even Mario was taken aback.

"You're . . ." Mario struggles to finish his statement. "You're, Bowser Junior. But. But you're dead. How . . ." Mario looks at me.

"I don't know." I say to him.

"Well." Mario says. "No reason we can't kill him again. Get him!" We charge at him. He makes no aggressive movement in response. I hop on Mario's shoulders and spread my arms. He responds by jumping and twisting his body. We contort into a helicopter motion and fly towards him. He smiles, as we get close. He sprouts wings and jumps above us. He grabs me by the head with his legs. He plucks me from my brothers shoulders and slings me across the room. Before we can process what's happening, he hip-drops toward the ground, crashing onto Mario. Mario is planted face down into the stone floor, reaching toward where I had landed. Bowser Junior hops off of Mario and walks toward me until he is equidistant between us.

"Since when does Bowser Junior do that?" Mario says, in pain.

"I don't fuckin know!" I shout back to him.

"He con't." Bowser Junior says, in an awkward voice. "He's dead."

"Then who the hell are you?" Mario asks, still unable to get up. A chill ran through me when he answered.

"The nime's Green." He says, confidently. "Heir apparent to the Koopa Troopa. And we're about ta go for a roide." He points directly above him. Mario and I look up at the mural above. The murals colors are being replaced by the night sky. "They siy in Obsidian, ya con't tell noit from diy. Not until you've been here a while." Green says.

The night sky looks just like the one over the Mushroom Kingdom. Peach's castle must be giving way to this one. The moonlight shines through the windows in the throne room. As we stand up, Mario and I can see magma and debris flying everywhere across the Kingdom. People are running, dying, dissolving in the lava. But the citizens of Obsidian, they are only slightly disoriented, but largely unscathed. Faintly, we can hear the screams of Mushroom Kingdom's subjects. Rock, magma, and pieces of Peach's castle are rolling down the volcano from which we're sprouting. Green continues talking.

"The Obsidian skoys are always the color of the magma. It's the sime color as the sunset. That's the sime color as the sunroys. But on tonight, the Mushroom Kingdom has seen its last sunset. And Obsidian will see her greatest sunroys!"

"I've heard enough." Mario says. "Luigi, let's take out this fruitcake."

"Good fuckin luck!" Green replies. He goes into his shell and shoots toward Mario. Mario pulls out his hammer in response.

"Mario, no!" I shout. "Get clear"

Mario didn't listen. He attempts to smash the shell to bits when it approaches him. I dash toward them in anticipation. Before I can get there, Green stops on a dime and hops on top of Mario's hammer. He breathes fire into Mario. His is more impactful than Bowser's. It sends Mario flying backward. That's when I finally got to him. He turns around and grabs my palms and begins muscling me backwards.

"Wh-what happened to you?" I asked, struggling.

"Everyone turned against me." He spreads his wings and uses them to push me back faster. "People believe what they want to believe when it comes from the mouth of the Koopa King. Hell, guess I did the sime for most of me career." He lifts me off the ground and drives me through a window. I'm hanging out of it now, dazed. He catches a piece of broken glass and holds it toward my neck. "I bet you can think of someone ya wish ya hadn't followed."

Just then, Mario grabbed his tail from behind and slung him the opposite direction. He catches himself in the air with his wings.

"Big mistike." He says before flying toward us. He knocks Mario and me out of the window. We are sent rolling down the volcano. We eventually catch ourselves to run down it. Green catches up with us. "Everyone trusted the King, and what did it get em?" He snags us from the ground and throws us skyward. In this position, we can't control if we'll land in the lava or not. As we reach our apex, Elvin's chopper swoops by and catches us in it's cockpit

"Elvin?" I question.

"That's right partner." I hear his voice in the cockpit, though he is no here. "Get ready to swoop in hard, I'm in a bit of a jam." When he says this, the chopper makes a swooping dive. As we get closer to the ground, I can see Toadsworth. He is about to chop Elvin's head off with a blade coming from his cane. I dive from the chopper before Toadsworth can finish his swing and tackle him. The chopper swoops back into the air.

"You're finished, Toadsworth." I say as I have him pinned.

"On the contrary." He says before stabbing me in the side with his blade. I get up and stumble around in pain. As I'm doing so, I see Elvin pulling himself from the rubble with his robotic arm.

"Watch out Luigi!"Elvin says, rushing up to me and knocking me aside to block Toadsworth's attack with his metal arm.

"Fool." Toadsworth says as they struggle. Toadsworth sweeps Elvin's feet from under him. Toadsworth attempts to drive his blade into Elvin's throat. But Elvin pounds Toadsworth's foot with his metal hand. Toadsworth stumbles away from him. Elvin gets to his feet.

"Since when do you get your hands dirty in the field." Elvin asks him.

"I could ask you the same." Toadsworth answers. "For me it was watching that man kill family. I knew I had to learn to fight through my disability to stand up for myself, and not simply rely on the royal guard alone. I couldn't rely on the guard. Nor the crown. Nor the Mario brothers. I knew it was better to have them on my side. But I had to be prepared, for when I didn't. In that way, we are the same, Professor. We think. We prepare. We adapt. That is why I wanted to employ you, Professor. Not simply for the good of the crown, but because we understand each other."

"We're nothing alike." Elvin says. "You're a killer."

"Who in these walls isn't?" Toadsworth says, staring at me. Elvin squares himself and points his metal fist at Toadsworth, arm straight like a cannon.

"Surrender now!" Elvin says. "Or you won't survive this rocket punch."

"Imbecile! I'm fucking Toadsworth! I survived the King's bombing death. I survived the Mushroom Kingdom Civil War. And even now, as the Kingdom falls at the hands of Obsidian, I AM STILL HERE! And if you launch that appendage, you will taste the power of my resilience!" Just then, Elvin's arm begins to speak.

"ENEMY ON-BOARD CHOPPER. ENEMY PRESENCE DETECTED ON CHOPPER."

"Shit!" Elvin exclaims. "Luigi, get to the chopper!" I turn to the sky to look for the chopper. Further up the volcano that has now largely replaced Peach's castle, propping Bowser's castle up on a pedestal, Elvin's chopper hovers. In it, I can see Green tossing my brother from the chopper. My chase instincts activate and I dash up the mountain. Mario is not that far but falling fast. I charge up some lightning and blast it behind me to propel me forward. My body torpedoes toward Mario, meeting him in the air and catching him before he lands. We both still hit the ground pretty hard. We graze some cascading lava on the way down and burn ourselves. Mario's legs are scorched, but he doesn't flinch or even open his eyes. My back is scorched. I have a stab wound in my side. And I felt everything. When Mario and I stopped rolling, I stood to my feet and held my brother up, his arm over my shoulder. Green swoops in front of us. But he is not facing us. Instead he hovers slightly above ground, his arms crossed, over looking the kingdom and all the carnage. But his large wings obscure most of my view of it. He sounds calm when he speaks.

"You con't possibly save your brother and yourself from me. You know that. You've got to choose between yourself, or your brother, or the professor. As impossible as choosing between yourself, your king, or the city that you mide great.

I received the fust dosage of King Koopa's replikited genetic code. The heaviest one. I guess the King figured betta sife than sorry for his most valued Lieutenant. Sure it stotted out with the normal soid effects with spikes on me shell and such. But ova toim, I just kept changing. Morphing even.

I awoke one morning to foind that I was the spitting image of Bowser Junior. I found it a soyentific marvel. But the King found it disgusting. Guess for him it was loik seein a ghost of his own flesh and blood. I was on his bad soid by then.

But I still had the genetic code to the King and all his minions. I even managed to get a little of yours, though there's some blanks to fill in. I couldn't fix meself, but I could make meself, better. Now I can shoot fire like the King could. Floy loik the King couldn't, and so much more.

But I think the last straw for the King was when I found out his plans for Obsidian to roys to the surface. Obsidian was already thriving and perfect. But he still wasn't over conquering the Mushroom Kingdom, by any means. When I refused to help him finish this project, he made me wuk in secret until one diy he came onto me sub, and made a bloody attempt on me loif. I could have killed him, but I was holding back, because I was loyal. Instead, I let him think he left me there for dead. I took me sub off radar, and lurked.

In me absence, the King spread rumors about me through the media. Turned me own city against me. And I had no choice but to except it. And as I thought, my absence ultimately led to his downfall. But I must say, even now, thinking about the thousands of good men that died in the name of the Koopa Troopa before we built Obsidian, this is a beautiful sight to see. Watching the Mushroom Kingdom burn. So this, this I can watch in the Koopa King's memory."

"But why did you save me before? Why did you put me on board your ship and then try to kill me?" I asked him. These were my last moments after all. Why die with questions?

"Simple." Green responds, his back still to me. "I found you nearly drowned to death. I had been meaning to kill you for the longest. I guess in a wiy, I ultimately blime _you_ for our retreat to Obsidian, for what happened to me. So when I came across you, floating, I had to kill you. But fust, I needed you concious-so that I could mike you suffa. I made a mistike then, not wanting to damage me own ship, I let you get away. A shime Mario couldn't be so lucky."

I looked at Mario's limp body. I know we can't defeat Green. I know I can't outrun him. I'm actually fearful that this is the end. And without turning away from the carnage, Green knows it. As I wait for Green to turn around and finish the job, I see Elvin dragging himself up the mountain. The hot soot is beginning to singe him. But he uses his metal arm to pull himself toward us.

"You could have saved him, ya know?" Green says. "You doived from a moving chopper to help the professor, leaving your brother in an air-borne chopper at _my_ mercy. Just as I left Bowser at the mercy of the Mario Brothers. And look what's become of them." I looked over at my brother, hanging unresponsively from my shoulder. My vision became uncomfortably watery.

"If you're gonna kill me" I said "you'd best do it now. Or live to regret your stalling." He just sat there, still hovering. "FACE ME!"

"Luigi!" Elvin cries out from down the mountain, still unable to stand. "Run. Just r-GKHPH!" His sentence is interrupted as he spits up blood. His body collapses downward to reveal Toadsworth lying on his back, pulling out his blade from Elvin's torso. Toadsworth then rolls off to the side in exhaustion.

"ELVIN!" I shout past Green. Green then turns his attention to me. Elvin does not verbally respond, but reaches his metal hand toward me. He clinches it tightly. As Green moves in toward me, Elvin's chopper swoops up me and my brother and hits the afterburner for the skies. The doors seal shut as the chopper makes a B-line for a way out of the kingdom. Out of the new Obsidian.

I lay my brother down and start shaking him vigorously. I feel his neck. I can't find a pulse. But that doesn't mean Elvin can't save him. Elvin can do anything, right? I've gotta go get him. I gotta go get Elvin.

I get up and race toward the controls to turn the chopper around. But when I sit in the chair and grab the stick, it locks on me.

"Come on, damn it, work! Work, work, work!" I rage at the controls. Elvin talks to me through the chopper radio from the communicator on his arm.

"The chopper's not turning around, partner." His voice says calmly.

"Elvin?!"

"Whenever this chopper lands, wherever it lands, don't you come back here. The Mushroom Kingdom doesn't own us. And we owe it nothing. We did everything we could, Luigi. Green isn't our enemy, and Toadsworth is no longer a threat. Sometimes you get what you want, and still can't be happy. Green has no more interest in you. If you never come back you can still have a nice life. And think about it, if you get to your house soon enough, you can live out that dream of watching the Mushroom Kingdom burn on your flat screen. *cough* *cough* You don't need me for that." Water was escaping from my eyes for the first time in as long as I can remember, save for when I mourned Daisy of course. "Maybe you didn't get your money. But you'll find other work. But you got rid of Bowser, and you got the crown off your back, for good."

"Elvin, unlock the damn controls! Now." I shout in rage.

"You've probably figured out by now that I can't hear you. One-way transmitter. But it works. I think our conversations are nicer when it's just me talking. So let me just say my peace. I know Daisy was your wife and Mario is your brother. There's no replacing that. But I suppose you were the best family, and hell, the closest friend I had. Thanks for that, neighbor. I can't guarantee my last moments will sound peaceful. So I'm turning of the transmitter now. Goodbye Luigi. Professor E. Gadd, over and out."

I turned around to look at Mario's lifeless body. I had admitted to myself. I then got up to look at the Mushroom Kingdom as it burned and reshaped. This was it. Everyone from my old life in the Kingdom was gone. And as the chopper flew further away, to wherever it was that it would land me I knew that there was no going back to the old Kingdom. There was no Mushroom Kingdom.

This was inspired by my brother and I. This was the brainchild of the Koopa King. The vision of Lieutenant Green. This was crystal clear and plain to see. This was Obsidian.


End file.
